At the turn of the twentieth century, colonial wars were being waged across southern Africa. "The Scattering" tells the story of Tjipuka, the daughter of a Herero chief, whose life is shattered during the brutal Herero wars.

Fed up with the German occupation of their land, the Herero people had staged an uprising that led to extermination orders from a German general: kill every Herero man, and spare neither woman nor child. Having survived the massacre at Ohamakari, Tjipuka flees into the desert with her child. Her husband is presumed dead. From the desolate no-man''s-land of the desert to the death camps on Shark Island and the border of Bechuanaland, Tjipuka has to find the courage - and the will - to survive.

Meanwhile, in the Transvaal, 25-year-old Riëtte is forced into marriage with her brutish neighbor. When he is taken captive and their farm is set ablaze - part of the British scorched-earth policy - she and his daughters are herded into a concentration camp.

"The Scattering" follows two women''s journeys through history as they wrestle with betrayal, loyalty, hope and the struggle to survive.