An American writer in England takes his children and a newly hired nanny on a trip to South Africa while his wife, a reporter, is on assignment. He has an affair with the nanny, but when he refuses to leave his wife for her, the nanny gets her revenge by kidnapping his children.
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.
