In the 1860s, cousins Em and Lyndall grow up on a Karoo farm under the slipshod guardianship of Tand Sannie Their isolation is relieved only by the understanding of the German overseer and his son Whilst Em goes along with the constraints of their social backwater, Lyndall rails against the fetters by which women are bound Their chosen paths are different, revealinig not only an impassioned plea for women's emancipation, but also a poignant story of the human soul