Enzo Secchi, harbourmaster for Eritrea"s main port, is a loyal colonial servant. But he is lonely and when his friend Salvatore, colonel of the local Italian garrison, suggests he finds an Eritrean housekeeper to cook, clean — and maybe share his bed — Enzo takes the plunge. He surprises himself by choosing Aatifa, a sharp-tongued woman in her 30s with a complicated family life. What neither of them counts on is falling in love. But it is 1935, Fascism is on the march, and Italian forces bent on invading neighbouring Ethiopia begin arriving at the port. And with them come new laws - including one forbidding relationships between Italian men and Eritrean women...