Dr Jack Doe has taken a huge risk by quitting his permanent research job in Melbourne to take up leadership of the Indicators Programme with the UN in Nairobi. On a quick visit in 1993, he fell in love with Africa. And possibly with a woman best known as Njoki, who told him she ran a dress shop. When he arrives, he finds that he had a predecessor who quit after only a month - because the Programme has no money, the UN has no email or modern computers, and the UN management is antiquated. What's more, Njoki turns out to be a con-woman called Mama Haraka, who works out of a bar called Buffalo Bills. Here, he begins to learn about Kenya, its history and its many peoples. Can he possibly complete this impossible project? Yes but not now.