Inge meets Theo being forced to leave South Africa and falls in love with him. He visits her father, Olaf, in Sweden and she accompanies him on his next visit to Montreal, only to find Theo ready to marry Sharon. Nevertheless, he still makes the effort to set her up to be a fashion designer in California. Her business thrives, but she remains unfulfilled and still craves Theo's love. Then Sharon is murdered, which breaks Theo's heart and he seeks refuge from his pain on the Bushvelt farm of his family. Inge follows Theo back to the Bushvelt to comfort him. They bond afresh and settle near Reno, Nevada to develop new technologies for Olaf, while she continues her clothing business in partnership with Jackie Cochran, celebrated for holding the world speed record for women pilots. Under the care of an English nanny, their offspring thrives while the nanny morphs into becoming Theo's personal assistant. The chief of the native tribe living on the Bushvelt farm passes, and Theo and Inge rush down to show their respects at his funeral. A group of white supremacists try to assassinate Theo who thwarts their attempt and is again reminded of the hatred extremists feel towards him. The children prosper and after the birth of their second son the whole family flies down to visit the Bushvelt, which captivates the them. Theo and Olaf's enterprise prospers, causing Theo to spend more time abroad. Inge gives birth to their fourth and last child and puts her clothing design business on hold to concentrate on raising the children, punctuated with annual Bushvelt visits. With each visit there is less animosity towards Theo in the country for his opposition to racial discrimination. Business expands and leads them to hire a chief executive to manage their research institute. He is ably assisted by Susan who ultimately marries him. With her offspring becoming self-sustaining, Inge explores reconstituting her fashion business which she accomplishes. On one of her return flights from Los Angeles at the Carson City airport she collides with a freight airplane and is mortally injured. Totally distraught, Theo again seeks solace in the Bushvelt, with his daughter, Annie, to administer to his emotional needs. She discovers that his first great love, Teresa, is also widowed and contrives with the help of her daughter, Rebecca, to bring them back together. Both parties recognize their original bond as key to their emotional lives and enthusiastically embrace the overt match-making of their daughters.
About the Author: Johan Wassenaar was born and raised in South Africa during the thirties and forties. He graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand as a mechanical engineer and migrated to Canada to work in the aerospace industry during the Cold War on advanced thermodynamic systems designed to be extremely troubling to the Soviet Union. This led him to California, then the center of high technology development. During Vietnam he became a corporate strategy consultant to major companies in the United States, Britain, France and South Africa, including serving as the VP of marketing for a diversified high technology company in Los Angeles with stealth capabilities. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, he became involved in a partnership which became Trimark Pictures, a movie company in Santa Monica, while continuing to do management and acquisition projects for high tech corporations. Beginning at the turn of the century, he began writing and publishing novels winding up with a serious nonfictional book, "The Foster Care Dilemma" designed to improve the dreadful lot that far too many foster children are forced to endure. He has a son and a daughter both in their fifties and lives alone in Ojai, California.