Retired British GP Tom Miles, on vacation in Kenya, is arrested by leading opposition politician Paul Muya and charged with a War Crime relating to the death of a freedom fighter during the fight of independence - the so called Mau Mau Emergency. That freedom fighter was Paul Muya's father, General Jembe. Miles is defended, reluctantly, by Paul Muya's white Kenyan friend, Leo Kane and British Asian War Crimes expert, Aliya Zain. Through a series of flashbacks, Tom's national service involvement in the Mau Mau period is slowly revealed. So too are the abuses of human rights in Kenya at the time, including the policy of getting the charismatic freedom fighter General Jembe 'up country and cold' - i.e. out of the capital and dead. The Acting President of Kenya was himself a comrade of General Jembe. Leo Kane however has something else on his mind: The Charge, an annual car rally across the bush which, in this its final year, he is determined to win with his two sons. Paul Muya prosecutes the case, drawing on damning evidence from long closed files, suggesting that the British establishment, whilst publicly championing Tom Miles's defence, is secretly conniving in his prosecution.
Leo is attacked, and Aliya has to take over the defence of a man whose attitudes and actions she despises.