The Promise

In a boarding school in South Africa in 1986, 13-year-old Amor Swart is summoned to her headmistress’s office. Once there, her aunt, Marina, tells her that her mother, Rachel, who has been sick for many months, has died. On the ride from Amor’s school to Marina’s house, Marina expresses her disapproval that Rachel converted back to her original faith, Judaism, months before her death.

After picking up her husband, Ockie, and her son Wessel, Marina drives Amor to the Swart farm, which Amor’s father, Manie, inherited from his own father. The farm is in Pretoria, one of three South African capital cities. Parked outside the house is a hearse containing Rachel’s body, which Marina has instructed to wait so that Amor can say goodbye to her mother. Amor cannot face this, however, and runs away.

In her hiding spot outside the house, Amor remembers a day two weeks earlier when her parents, forgetting she was in the room, began talking about Salome, the family’s Black maid who has been with them for many years and who served as a faithful nurse to Rachel in her final months.