Paardeberg, South Africa is far from the Canadian prairies. In 1899, best friends from the small town of Portage la Prairie, Will and Mason, sign up with the Winnipeg Rifles A Company to fight in the Second Boer War. Here they meet Robert, the silent anthropologist from Alberta with a mystery he isn't revealing; Claire, an Australian nurse, chafing under her parents glass ceiling, who captures Will's heart at first sight; and Campbell Scott, a rebellious veteran with an African wife and a hot air balloon requisitioned by the army for spying. All are fleeing their former lives but to be free they must face the shattered bodies of war. In the dust and desert of South Africa, they drift towards each other in ways that can spell either disaster or salvation. Different reasons fuel each person's motion: Mason wants to fight in the name of justice, pride, and manliness. Will, hesitant from the start, ultimately learns that war is hell. Claire struggles for independence, and Campbell Scott drowns his disillusions in his wife's potent homebrew. Drift is about challenging and crossing borders and boundaries between and within countries, races, and individuals. History and fate have some hold over the characters but ultimately they have to make decisions in order to stop drifting.