The time is 1939. White South Africa is a deeply divided nation with
many of the Afrikaner people fanatically opposed to the English. The
world is on the brink of war and South Africa elects to fight for the
Allied cause against Germany. Six-year-old Tom Fitzsaxby finds himself
at an orphanage in a remote town in the high mountains, where the
Afrikaners side fiercely with Hitler's Germany. Tom's English name
proves sufficient for him to be ostracised, marking him as an outsider.
And so begin some of life's tougher lessons for the small, lonely boy.
Like the whitethorn, one of Africa's most enduring plants, Tom learns
how to survive in the harsh climate of racial hatred. Then a terrible
event sends him on a journey to ensure that justice is done. On the way,
his most unexpected discovery is love.