The film takes place during the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings between 1995 and 1996. The Afrikaner poet Anna Malan (Juliette Binoche) is a South African broadcaster covering the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings. While her husband remains supportive, her work causes friction with her parents and younger brother Boetie (Langley Kirkwood), who are struggling to come to terms with Black majority rule. Due to increasing crime and cattle rustling, Malan's family are uncertain about their place in post–Apartheid South Africa.