As the novel begins, Ole Kaelo is reprimanding loaders for being slow. The couple is relocating from Nakuru to Nasila after Ole Kaelo is retrenched from Agribix Limited where he has been working as the commercial manager. Not long ago Kaelo had denied Taiyo a chance to go to Mombasa to develop her talent.
That is why Taiyo sympathizes with the loaders who are receiving strict instructions from her father. The two girls visualize what life in the new environment will be like. The girls are experiencing apprehension.
Nakuru town has always bustled with life and they fear the shop that their father aims at starting may not pick.
Taiyo encourages Resian that they should hope for the best. Resian requests Taiyo to plead with their father so that they can join Egerton University. Resian knows her father listens to Taiyo.
Through a flash back, the reader learns that Ole Kaelo and his wife Mama Milanoi have lived for twenty two years since they married. Women from Nasila had earlier visited Mama Milanoi at Nakuru and hinted at the hostility expected especially because the daughters are not married. Kaelo has been a hardworking man, a trait that led to his promotion at Agribix Limited.
The retrenchment has triggered ambition to work so as to be rich. A few kilometers to Nasila one lorry breaks down but soon it is fixed and the family reach uncle Simiren's homestead where they are welcomed warmly. It is now thirty years since Ole Kaelo left Nasila for Nakuru.
In all this time he has been away, uncle Simiren has been representing his elder brother. Elders are not happy with Kaelo's monogamous marriage. Simiren on his part has four wives and sixteen children.
