It’s1963, South Africa. The country is on a knife edge. Political protest, sabotage and violence engulfs the country. The Apartheid government, under Hendrik Verwoerd, brutally suppresses resistance. Under the State of Emergency, the feared Special Branch of the police arrest anyone suspected of being involved in underground activities.

Eleanor, an unassuming, young single mother is arrested at Griggs Bookstore where she works in Durban and taken for questioning. The police are on the hunt for her lover, the notorious “terrorist”, Red Ronnie Kasrils. She finds herself detained under the 90-day detention act and brutally interrogated. They will “break her or hang her”.