In Apartheid-torn South Africa, poet Ingrid Jonker (Carice van Houten) struggles tragically in search of love and a sense of home.

She searched for a home, she searched for love. Confronted by Apartheid and a father who was Minister of Censorship. With men like Jack Cope (Liam Cunningham) and Andre Brink, she found much love, but no home. In his first speech to the South African Parliament, Nelson Mandela read her poem "The Dead Child of Nyanga" and addresses her as one of the finest poets of South Africa.