The narrator recounts his courtship and marriage to a beloved woman and the deep grief that follows her loss, framing the tale as a sequence of African adventures and memories. Their travels northward involve clashes with a Zulu impi, the desperate defence of a laager, and strange episodes among marble kraals and wild places. Encounters range from a mysterious baboon-woman to uncanny events attributed to a figure called Indaba-Zimbi, while domestic treachery and plots by a character named Hendrika bring catastrophe. The narrative closes with a long aftermath and reflective meditation on change, memory, and the fading romance of earlier days.