Based on real events, the tales are a rare historical record of the times, reflecting the hopes and dreams of good people of all races, that are only now becoming a reality. The most lyrical story is Nonibe, set on a remote farm in the Eastern Province. It deals with the commonplace violence experienced by young black women, considered at the time to be too mundane to be reported in the press. The house of death, the return and the pig's bladder were inspired by the Pondoland peasant's opposition to the government policy of culling their cattle and confining them to less land, forcing them to work in the towns to avoid starvation. The most dramatic tale is To tell my story, set in Johannesburg and the surrounding farmland. It involves a murder trial. Told first through a white defence advocate and then his black client, it vividly illustrates how the biased legal system could crush a black accused, despite appearing to give him the tools with which to defend himself. In the rebel and the midas touch, Taylor's theme is the alienating and divisive rise of individualism. She describes how, notwithstanding their affluence, rich whites can lose their way.Dora Taylor's powers of observation enable her to conjure up the peace of the veld or the squalor of a shanty town. Although the stories are often heartrendingly tragic, there is always an underlying quality of hope, springing from the author's intense desire that things should improve, an objective to which she devoted her life....

Instead of inheriting her maternal grandmothe's fair skin, Kathie Liedeman is born as dark as her Cape Coloured father, a social disaster in the eyes of her mother and near-white grandmother, Mrs Fraser. When Kathie's new baby sister Stella is born as light skinned as Mrs Fraser, the two women rejoice; nothing is going to stop them propelling Stella into Cape Town's white world, where she will reap all the rewards of this privileged status. The innocent young Kathie adores her little sister but has no idea how the birth of Stella will deeply affect everyone in her father's household. Marginalised by her mother and grandmother, Kathie grows closer to her father. Enraged by his mother-in-law's false gentility and manipulation of his family, he is driven to drink. Kathie is devastated by his sudden accidental death and feels more and more alone. But only when Stella is sent to a white school does she learn with a terrible sense of shock, that she is 'different' from Stella.While Stella strives to join the white world, Kathie throws herself into her studies, though she never abandons her sister, whose painfully convoluted life is finally intertwined with her own in a most unexpected way. Kathie's life changes when she meets Paul Mangena, a young black lawyer from the Eastern Province. Drawn into a world of enlightenment, she shares Paul's utopian dream of a South Africa in which everyone will have the opportunity to live as equals. Though bolstered by the hope, the joy, and the intense love they have for each other, their path is never smooth. They are cruelly opposed by the unyielding forces of the times, but in spite of these Kathie remains undaunted. Even as the final cataclysmic event overwhelms her, she declares, "The future is ours!"....