In the present day, Orleanna Price reflects upon her time in Africa, remembering walking single-file through the forest with her daughters to have a picnic on a stream bank. The forest is not only filled with life, it is alive. The huge columns of trees vibrate with animals and vegetation, and Orleanna and her daughters seem like "pale, doomed blossoms" amidst the wild beauty. Alone for a moment by the stream, Orleanna spots an okapi — a type of gazelle — across the water. Her gaze locks with the animal's for a moment, and then it is gone.
As she remembers this moment and her time in Africa, Orleanna is not simply reminiscing; she is speaking to one of her children, although she doesn't specify which one. She asks to be judged, and implies that the child to whom she is speaking is dead and haunts her. Her request for judgment is also a request for peace from her child's restless spirit and from her own troubled memories.
In 1959, the Price family prepares for its year-long missionary trip to Africa. Restricted to carrying only 44 pounds of luggage apiece, the Price women struggle to decide which items to take with them. Finding a loophole in the restriction, they end up smuggling extra items, such as boxes of cake mix and tools, under the multiple layers of clothes they are wearing.
When they arrive in Africa, they are greeted by the Underdowns, a missionary couple who once lived in Kilanga, the village at which the Prices will be stationed. The Underdowns explain that Kilanga once had a thriving mission, with four American families, a church, a school, and a doctor who visited regularly. However, over the years the mission diminished, and it has now been reduced to one family — the Prices.
