In the 1950s, in the remote Free State region of South Africa, three women who don’t know each other are on their way to the Free State Correctional Facility. Laurence, an artist from Switzerland, Stephanie, a French student, and Lesedi, a Black woman, are all headed to meet Djamal Okoroko, who has been on death row for fifteen years.
Laurence has been corresponding with Djamal and has come to support him as his execution approaches. Stephanie, who is visiting to teach French to the inmates, finds Djamal as her sole student. Lesedi, Djamal's wife, lives nearby and runs a Bed and Breakfast adjacent to the prison.
When Laurence arrives, she is unable to see Djamal immediately and ends up staying at Lesedi's Bed and Breakfast. Meanwhile, Lesedi is informed for the first time that she cannot visit her husband because he is engaged in French lessons.
Djamal is deeply interested in the notion that using the language of the oppressor can be a means to transcend oppression. In this isolated setting, where nature serves as a metaphor for eternity and beauty in contrast to death, the Bed and Breakfast becomes a symbol of the unity and complex relationships that develop among the three women. Their interactions are marked by a range of emotions, tensions, and misunderstandings surrounding issues of race, gender, and identity.
The film does not focus on Djamal's crime but rather on the broader implications of the death penalty through the lens of human relationships. The three protagonists each form distinct connections with Djamal while confronting each other along similar lines.
As Djamal struggles to maintain his humanity through literature, his physical condition deteriorates under the dehumanizing treatment of the prison system.