As a child, Ali Neuman narrowly escaped being murdered by Inkhata, a militant political party at war with Nelson Mandela's African National Congress. Only he and his mother survived the carnage of those years. But as with many survivors, the psychological scars remain.
Lonnie and Brian go on the run from the Cape Town underworld, after finding a box filled with cash and a valuable wrist watch. They steal a lucky fish that they use to barter with the gangsters.
An abalone poacher, a dead son, and a broken love story are all bound together by a single theme: the curse of the abalone - an endangered marine snail prized as an aphrodisiac in China, but illegal harvesting has disastrous effects on the traditional fishing community near Cape Town, South Africa.
