Hannah Musgrave has left her family in Liberia during the civil war - now she must return and confront her ghosts.
Hannah Musgrave - enigmatic, tough, middle aged - has lived many lives. A member of the terrorist group, The Weathermen in the 60s, she was once a hardened radical, both sexually and politically.
Fleeing from the FBI, she settles in Liberia, where she marries a politician and becomes a mother and a wife. But Hannah remains removed from her life in Africa, even from her husband and three sons. It is only the chimpanzees in the sanctuary which she develops that truly touch her.
Liberia, in the meantime, is a country waiting to explode. As a bloody war erupts Hannah is on the run again. This time though, the past won't disappear.