The drama of a U.S. missionary family in Africa during a war of decolonization. At its center is Nathan Price, a self-righteous Baptist minister who establishes a mission in a village in 1959 Belgian Congo. The resulting clash of cultures is seen through the eyes of his wife and his four daughters. By the author of Pigs in Heaven.

Fleeing the Congo as refugees, Tina and her mother arrived in Kenya. Her mother found work as a maid for a family headed by Roland Greyhill. But the Greyhill fortune was made from a life of corruption and crime. After her mother is found shot to death in Mr. Greyhill's personal study, Tina spends the next four years surviving on the streets alone, working as a master thief for the Goondas, Sangui City's local gang. A job for the Goondas brings Tina...

After their Congolese village is destroyed by a milita group, eleven-year-old Therese works with humanitarian aid groups to find her brother, while her mother, Luna, escapes from the milita's camp and begins to search for her children.

Coltan, or "blue gold," is a rare mineral used in making cell phones and computers. Across continents, the lives of three teen girls are affected by the "blue gold" trade. Sylvie's family had to flee the Democratic Republic of the Congo after her father was killed by a rogue militia gang in the conflict for control of coltan. The refugee camp where she now lives is deplorable, and Sylvie yearns for a way out -- to save not only herself, but her remaining...