This is a vivid, spell-binding account of a journey up the Congo river by two journalists, Helen Winternitz and Timothy Phelps. As their journey progresses, , they learn through conversations, interviews, and detailed observations, more about the river, its country Zaire, its people , its history and politics. The Congo is 2500 miles long. Their journey begins aboard a riverboat at Kinshasa, where the Congo flows into the Atlantic Ocean. The riverboat tows barges which are like small villages, crowded with local passengers and merchants, with all kinds of goods and merchandise, for trading both aboard the barges and with the people along the river's shores. Winternitz and Phelps travel on the riverboat, across the Equator, and to Kisangani, where they leave the riverboat and with help from a Catholic Missions priest, travel by Land Rover, truck and bus to Goma, in eastern Zaire. This part of their journey takes the journalists through the Ituri Rain Forest. From Goma the journalists return to Kinshasa by plane.

In her book, as she travels along the river, Helen Winternitz provides both a historical and political perspective, particularly the devastating effect of European colonization of the Congo beginning in about the 16th century, with the Portuguese and followed later by Belgium. At the time of Winternitz's river journey, Zaire was ruled by Mobutu, as a dictatorship. When Winternitz and Phelps complete their final interview with an opponent of Mobutu, the two journalists are arrested. Although they are free to return to their hotel everyday, they remain under arrest and their days are filled with tense waiting and interrogations. Eventually the American Embassy works out their release.