Lesley Bilinda, the Scottish widow of a Rwandan black pastor, returns ten years after the 1994 Rwandan genocide to search for his murderers only to find the truth elusive and forgiveness impossible. Lesley met Charles when she was working as a nurse in Rwanda but their life together was shattered as genocide swept the country. In a hundred days of violence, about one million were killed. At the height of the genocide, Charles was abducted and never seen again.

Ten years later, in a new atmosphere of openness, some of the killers are coming forward to confess their crimes. Lesley meets the manager of the guesthouse where Charles was last seen, Paster Kabeira. He is believed to have colluded with Hutu rebels and was seen handing Charles over to armed militants. He is now in prison but he refuses to admit he did anything wrong. The meeting leaves her frustrated and upset but she refuses to give up. She visits the Murambi Genocide Memorial site to confront for herself the scale of the genocide. Its full horror brings her to her knees. She travels on to Gahini, the village where she and Charles lived. A local man agrees to speak about the killings. As they talk, it becomes clear to her that he was one of the men who murdered her best friend, Anatolie. She feels disgust but also pity for him. She also uncovers some unexpected and unpalatable truths about her husband's "secret life"... which test her Christian faith to its limits.