The year is 2000. Ikuko Kanazawa, a 23-year-old
Japanese girl, is unsure about the prospect of marrying
her boyfriend, Hiroshi. She wants more experience of
travel and goes to England, to improve her English,
promising Hiroshi she’ll marry him when she returns.
Life abroad is daunting at first, as she notes in her
diary, but she settles into the new routine. At the
student hostel, she goes to the photography club,
where she meets Zambian photographer, Bernard
Chiluba, whose work she admires. Later, she has a
chance encounter with Bernard, who shows her round
the city. There is a mutual attraction. Bernard realises
she plans to marry, but Ikuko is now unsettled – he
is so different from Hiroshi. Soon, Lucretia, a fellow
student, suspects they are more than friends.
Ikuko goes on a photo club trip to the countryside
with Bernard. While returning, a van crashes into the
minibus. The driver is hurt but Bernard saves Ikuko
from injury. Back at the hostel, after the traumatic
events, Ikuko is upset. Bernard comforts her, and they
end up spending the night together. In the morning,
they have to talk. Neither regrets what has happened,
but Bernard reveals he is a single parent, with two
children, and Ikuko tells him about Hiroshi. Ikuko is
confused about the future, and later confesses all to
Hiroshi, who is hurt.
Bernard has to leave for Zambia – his children have
been abandoned by his estranged wife. Meanwhile,
Ikuko, disillusioned with study, returns to Japan.
Three months pass till she hears from Bernard. Their
letters to each other had gone astray. She gladly
accepts his offer to visit Zambia. There, she adapts to
life in rural Africa, keeping house and looking after the
girls. Although in love with Bernard, she fails to adjust
completely to the new life and culture and eventually
returns to Japan.
The action shifts to 2050. Workers at the Red Sea
marine research centre await the arrival of eminent
scientist, Joyce Mutanga. She lives in Australia
but was born in Africa. Her reputation precedes
her – cold, remote and selfish, as Taka, a Japanese
researcher, remembers. Joyce’s presentation is brilliant,
but she makes no effort to socialise. Instead, she goes
swimming alone, but steps on a venomous stonefish.
Her screams are heard by Taka and colleagues, who
save her life.
In hospital, memories of childhood surface in Joyce’s
mind. Taka visits and notices the change in her – now
she seems weak and vulnerable. The accident seems
to have given Joyce a new outlook on life and she
asks Taka to return. She recovers rapidly; Taka takes
her for a swim, helping her overcome a post-accident
fear of water. The swim ends in romance. Later, they
talk; she confides in him about her childhood, which
she has never really told anyone before – how life was
happy with her grandfather in Zambia, then she was
uprooted to Australia by her mother. There, the sea
became a safe haven from the world outside. Later,
she focused on work and study rather than people. A
letter arrives from her recently deceased grandfather,
Bernard Chiluba, who has left all his possessions to
her.
Meanwhile, Taka visits his grandmother in Japan. She
is intrigued by the idea of a Zambian marine scientist
and insists on watching the presentation and learning
all about her. She is upset when she hears that Joyce
has returned to Zambia to visit her late grandfather’s
house and mutters ‘I’m sorry about Bernard.’ Taka is
confused, but his grandmother gives him her old diary,
which she kept fifty years ago. He notices the name
on the cover is ‘Ikuko Kanazawa’, his grandmother’s
maiden name. In Zambia, Joyce sorts through her
grandfather’s things, discovering pictures of him as
a young man in England, with a Japanese girl. Also,
pictures of the same girl at the family home in Zambia
but she knows nothing more about her.
The story ends with Joyce inviting Taka to Zambia.
She has the photos to show him, while he has the
diary to show her. They do not realise yet, but their
grandparents were lovers fifty years ago. Joyce looks
forward to sharing a new life with Taka