Xolani is a lonely factory worker, in Queenstown, South Africa, who keeps to himself and goes through the motions of daily life. He patiently waits every year for the "ukwaluka", an annual secret ritual in the hills where boys undergo the brutal but important act of becoming men. Xolani and his childhood friend Vija -- now a successful and powerful man -- are mentors to these boys each year. But when a watchful and Westernized mentee is assigned to him, Xolani's carefully-protected secrets begin to slip out of his grasp.