Based on Elsa Joubert's novel "The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena," regarded as one of the best African novels of the 20th century.

Poppie Nongena tells the story of a South African woman, an Afrikaans-speaking Xhosa mother, whose life revolves around her family and finding stability in a period of insufferable upheaval in the country. When her husband Stone became too ill to work, Poppie was deemed by the law to be an "illegal" resident in her own country. She engaged in a desperate struggle with the authorities for permission to stay, moving from house to house, applying for permits, extensions, and extensions of extensions, and using every means at her disposal to remain with her children. Caught in the crossfire of her children's needs, her husband's illness, community anger, and repressive laws, she was finally forced to give in just as the 1976 riots for freedom erupted.—Helena Spring Films