Newly widowed and on the threshold of seventy, Lizzie Warton questions the value of her remaining years. Uncharacteristically, she decides for the first time in her life to do what she wants, instead of what everyone expects.
Against the wishes of family and friends, she sets out for Africa to work at a Ugandan middle school to establish a library. When she lands at night in the Entebbe airport, her hosts are not there to meet her. Near panic, she hires a local taxi. The driver drugs her, steals everything, and dumps her limp body in a slum. Waking in the dark, she feels someone tugging off her shoes.
Without money, a passport, clothes, or medications, Lizzie is forced to start over with the help of a street orphan and find a way to survive. Nevertheless, she is determined to complete her mission. Soon she learns that nothing in Africa is as it appears. The grind of daily life in the Third World is beyond anything Lizzie imagined. Using her own life's skills, she battles against bureaucracy, delays, domestic abuse, and even terrorists to get the job done.
In the process, Lizzie gains a new family. Despite doubts from every sensible instinct she's ever developed, her own personal search for meaning becomes her grand adventure of a lifetime.