Benjamin and Bockarie are two longtime friends who return to their hometown, Imperi, after the civil war in Sierra Leone. The village is in ruins, the ground covered in bones. As more villagers come back, Benjamin and Bockarie try to forge a new community by taking up their former teaching posts, but they are beset by obstacles: a scarcity of food; a rash of murders, thievery, rape, and retaliation; and the depredations of a foreign mining company intent on sullying the town's water supply and blocking its paths with electric wires. As Benjamin and Bockarie search for a way to restore order, they're forced to reckon with the uncertainty of their past and future alike.