Blaise is thirteen years old when this story opens in 1968. Within the stratified society of Cape Town during the height of the Apartheid era, his family occupies the very top rung of the social and economic ladder. Gifted, popular, good looking, Blaise is set for a life of happiness and success. But during his third year at university, tragedy strikes, and Blaises life is turned upside down. He opts to waive his student deferment from military service, and 1975 sees him participating in South Africas first campaign against regular Cuban forces in Angola. Traumatised by what he witnesses, Blaises Catholic faith now becomes more important to him than ever before. He comes to believe he is called to serve in Rhodesia as a missionary. Here, during the tail end of that countrys vicious bush war, Blaise must endure the single greatest hardship and horror of his life, and suffer a terrible ordeal, and it is from this moment that he begins to acquire his reputation as a Catholic mystic and holy man.