Betsy Klein is summoned from her home in the United States to the bedside of her dying father in a South African hospital. Faced with having to say goodbye, she delves into his mind, speaking to him in the lyrical second-person. She imaginatively recreates his life-his struggles to become a doctor after being orphaned young and his fight to win the respect of his Boer patients as a Jew-as well as her own experiences with him as a father.
