A Washington Post journalist (Jackson) is sent to South Africa to cover the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, in which the perpetrators of murder and torture on both sides during Apartheid are invited to come forward and confront their victims ñ and are thus granted amnesty. He meets an Afrikaans poet (Binoche) who is covering the hearings for radio ñ and is shattered by the accounts of the cruelty and depravity committed by her fellow countrymen. They both must question their sense of identity as their story unfolds.