Floyd is a journalist living in New York. He is inspired by jazz, poetry and Africa but frequently turns to alcohol to drown his melancholic moods. His friend and colleague Arif always manages to raise him out of his depressions, sometimes with the help of the music that they often play together in a Greenwich Village club. Floyd's negative thoughts, however, were never so far away as when he and Arif were on one of their reporting assignments for a geographic magazine in locations such as the Pyrenees, the Horn of Africa and Botswana.

His encounter with Anna would change his life and show him that there is more to life than just poetry, jazz and Africa. It would also show him that there are other, unexpected challenges in life that should also be conquered without a whiskey bottle. Anna's search for her father, who is working for the CIA and has gone missing in Africa, throws the three friends into a dangerous adventure that is even beyond the skills of the two experienced African travellers.