As the African nation of Bwalo prepares for The Big Day--the only day in the year the ailing King talks to his subjects--we meet five very different people: Charlie, a curious boy with a dangerous dictaphone habit, eavesdrops on the eccentric guests of the Mirage Hotel. Sean, an Irishman who's given his heart (and the best part of his liver) to Bwalo, struggles to write the great African novel--if only his crazed fiancée and fierce thirst would stop distracting him. Josef, the mythmaker and kingmaker who paved the way for Tafumo's rise to power, starts to hear the ominous rattle of skeletons in his closet. Hope, the nurse caring for the King, keeps the old man alive, maintaining the façade of the powerful ruler as she mourns her own broken dreams. And in the countdown to the Big Day, storm clouds gather as a petty criminal, Jack, smuggles something into Bwalo--specifically to the Mirage Hotel--that will change the lives of all of them forever.