His father unknown and abandoned by his mother, Owusu’s only caregiver is his alleged half-aunt, Yaa. Their sacred bond is cut short upon her death giving birth to Adobea. The two are placed in a rundown orphanage and raised on the outskirts of Kumasi. Owusu cares for his sister, who is burdened with sickle cell disease. When an American couple comes to adopt her, Adobea and Owusu decide to break out of the orphanage in a last-ditch effort to find his long-lost mother in Accra. The journey is both wondrous and full of peril, hitchhiking across the country with the help of smugglers and colorful vagrants. Finally, let loose in one of Accra’s biggest markets, the pair are inadvertently rescued from the densely populated city by a bunch of street kids known as the Jackals. Their enigmatic leader, Ziggy, teaches Owusu and Adobea how to exist on the fringes of society and fight for something to call their own.
