For thirteen-year-old Karl De Man, the past is a mostly sunny childhood growing up on game reserves, where he is exposed to the raw beauty of the African landscape and conforms to the loving yet restraining ties of family and his Afrikaner heritage. The future holds the promise of freedom and success; as a student at an exclusive South African music academy, he can nurture his immersion into the world of books and his desire to excel - as a singer, as a writer, as an artist.