Young, American, and idealistic, the Whiteman bounds into Ivory Coast with a deep desire to Make a Difference. But then the NGO's funding dries up and he's stranded, unable to establish a water supply for the village and with plenty of time on his hands. With Mamadou as his guardian, he builds himself a thatch-roofed hut, cultivates a field, masters the art of rainforest hunting, and inadvertently tramples over unspoken taboos, all the while being hopelessly, distracted by women, from Mazatou the village flirt, to Djamilla the stunning Peul girl, and his neighbour's wife Mariam, who he meets under cover of darkness when the moon is new. Taking place against a backdrop of bloody civil war, this is the story of a whiteman losing his aid-worker illusions and discovering a different, more complicated Africa: perplexing and brutal, beguiling and sexy.