After Babamukuru's family leaves for England, Jeremiah tells Tambu there is no money to send her to school.

Nhamo steals Tambu's mealies and gives them away to children at Sunday school.

An elderly white woman named Doris donates 10 pounds toward Tambu's school fees after hearing her story at a mealie stand in the city.

At the homestead celebration for Babamukuru's return from England, Babamukuru announces Nhamo will move to the mission school.

Nhamo fails to return home for a vacation; Babamukuru and Maiguru drive to the homestead to deliver news of his death.

Babamukuru announces that Tambu will take Nhamo's place at the mission school.

Tambu arrives at Babamukuru's house for the first time and is overwhelmed by its opulence compared to life on the homestead.

After a Christmas party, Babamukuru physically strikes Nyasha multiple times and calls her a 'whore.'

Babamukuru calls a family meeting about Takesure and Lucia, then declares Jeremiah and Ma'Shingayi must have a Christian wedding.

On the morning of her parents' wedding, Tambu refuses to get out of bed or attend the ceremony.

Babamukuru punishes Tambu with 15 lashes and forces her to take over all of Anna's housekeeping duties for two weeks.

Maiguru confronts Babamukuru about his control of her finances and leaves the house to stay at Chido's residence.

Nuns from the Young Ladies College of the Sacred Heart visit the mission school and offer Tambu a scholarship.

Tambu is taken to Sacred Heart, where African students are crowded into rooms of six while white students have rooms of four.

Nyasha experiences a violent mental health crisis at night, screaming, destroying belongings, and tearing up books before collapsing in Maiguru's arms.

Tambu grows up on a poverty-stricken homestead in colonial Rhodesia, denied schooling because she is a girl and her education is considered a poor investment by her father. After fighting to raise her own school fees, her brother Nhamo's sudden death opens an unexpected path to the mission school under Babamukuru's roof. There she witnesses the authoritarian control Babamukuru exerts over his household, most violently expressed in his physical abuse of Nyasha after a Christmas party. Tambu's own act of defiance—refusing to attend her parents' forced wedding—earns her a harsh punishment, revealing the limits of the protection Babamukuru's household offers. A scholarship to the elite Sacred Heart convent school carries her further from her roots, but when she returns she finds Nyasha in the grip of a devastating mental health crisis, leaving the story unresolved and Tambu permanently changed.

Tambu's rise from the homestead to Sacred Heart.

Tambu's grandmother explains how colonizers forced the family off their fertile land and how Babamukuru was sent to school to support everyone.

Ma'Shingayi sells boiled eggs to fund Nhamo's schooling but tells Tambu that womanhood is a heavy burden.

Tambu grows a field of maize on the homestead to raise money for her own school fees.

Mr. Matimba has the local school hold Tambu's maize money, which enrages Jeremiah, who claims Mr. Matimba stole from him.

At the homestead celebration for Babamukuru's return, Tambu must present the washing dish to family members in strict hierarchical order and makes several mistakes.

After moving to the mission school, Nhamo returns for visits pretending to forget Shona and acting superior to his family.

When Tambu first arrives at Babamukuru's house, Maiguru finds Nyasha reading Lady Chatterley's Lover and criticizes it without taking the book away.

During Tambu's first dinner at Babamukuru's, she struggles with unfamiliar foods and utensils while Anna prepares sadza specially for her.

Tambu learns from Maiguru that she holds a master's degree but does not receive her own salary, which Babamukuru controls.

During the Christmas homestead visit, Tambu and Nyasha clean the dilapidated and unsanitary women's latrine together.

Maiguru is forced to cook two separate meals at Christmas—fresh refrigerated meat for senior family members and rotten meat for the rest.

Lucia interrupts Babamukuru's family meeting, drags Takesure up by his ears, and declares she will leave and take Ma'Shingayi with her.

Ma'Shingayi gives birth to Dambudzo in the hospital; Lucia stays at the Sigaukes' house and asks Babamukuru to help her find a job.

Babamukuru retrieves Maiguru from Chido's home; she gains more autonomy afterward and refuses to return to the homestead for future holidays.

After Nyasha's hospitalization, Ma'Shingayi warns Tambu about the dangers of 'Englishness,' and Tambu returns to Sacred Heart experiencing nightmares for the first time.

From the earliest days of Tambu's childhood, the women around her demonstrate how colonialism and patriarchy have shaped every corner of their lives. Her grandmother's account of land seizures, Ma'Shingayi's quiet sacrifices, and Maiguru's hidden oppression sketch a picture of womanhood as a burden passed down through generations. The Christmas visit to the homestead exposes the social hierarchy operating within Babamukuru's extended family, from the two separate pots of meat Maiguru is forced to cook to Lucia's bold interruption of the all-male family meeting. As Tambu moves further from the homestead, the lives of those left behind—particularly Ma'Shingayi and Lucia—continue to unfold in scenes of quiet desperation and fierce solidarity. The pool closes with Ma'Shingayi's ominous warning about 'Englishness' and Tambu's dawning unease as she returns to Sacred Heart.

The women and families shaped by colonialism and patriarchy.

Tambu catches Nhamo giving away her mealies at Sunday school, attacks him, and teacher Mr. Matimba offers to drive her to sell the crops.

Jeremiah attempts to claim Tambu's school money for himself, but Tambu arranges for the local school to hold the funds directly.

At the homestead celebration for Babamukuru's return, Nyasha refuses to dance Shona dances, revealing how deeply her years in England have changed her.

Arriving at Babamukuru's opulent home, Tambu waits alone in the living room and resolves not to become arrogant like Nhamo.

Tambu and Nyasha share an intimate conversation in which Nyasha admits she was anxious about returning to Africa, deepening Tambu's understanding of her cousin.

During dinner, Babamukuru confiscates Nyasha's copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover and snaps at her for asking about its whereabouts.

When Babamukuru continues striking Nyasha after the Christmas party, she punches him in the eye, marking a point of no return in their conflict.

In the kitchen during the family meeting, Ma'Shingayi erupts and accuses the others of dismissing her because she is uneducated and poor.

Lucia and Takesure begin sleeping together on the homestead; Lucia also sleeps with Jeremiah hoping to secure a permanent place near her sister.

Babamukuru secures Lucia a hostel kitchen job; Lucia and Ma'Shingayi kneel in gratitude while Nyasha kicks Tambu to stop her doing the same.

Babamukuru agrees to let Tambu attend Sacred Heart; Ma'Shingayi bitterly warns that he fattens her children only to take them away.

Lucia places baby Dambudzo on a rock in the river, forcing a depressed Ma'Shingayi to get up, rescue him, and wash them both.

Nyasha writes Tambu a heartfelt letter about feeling ostracized and missing her; Tambu feels brief guilt but does not write back.

On Tambu's second visit home from Sacred Heart, Nyasha wakes her at night and rants about colonial assimilation before collapsing into Maiguru's arms.

A white psychiatrist dismisses Nyasha's crisis as theatrical; a second doctor admits her to a clinic, and Tambu's perspective permanently shifts.

This pool follows the key moments of resistance and revelation that define the novel's emotional core, beginning with Tambu's first act of defiance against Nhamo and ending with the collapse of the world she naively trusted. Each event marks a character choosing or being forced to confront the forces controlling their life, from Nyasha refusing Shona dances at the homestead celebration to Ma'Shingayi naming the injustice she has silently endured for years. The Christmas homestead visit becomes a crucible as Lucia exposes patriarchal hypocrisy, Babamukuru sentences Jeremiah's family to a superfluous wedding, and Nyasha retaliates against her father's abuse in a moment that cannot be undone. As Tambu departs for Sacred Heart, her emotional neglect of Nyasha mirrors the broader abandonment of women who challenge the system. The pool closes with two psychiatrists reaching opposite conclusions about Nyasha's crisis, and Tambu finally beginning the slow, uncomfortable work of thinking for herself.