The Swarts are an Afrikaans family who have owned and lived on the same large farm near Pretoria for several generations. The book opens just after the death of Rachel Swart, wife of Manie, mother to Anton, Astrid and Amor. Anton is the eldest child, on leave from the army where he recently shot dead a Black woman who was protesting; he connects this act with his mother’s death. He’s dating Desiree, the daughter of an important cabinet minister in theapartheid government, and after the army plans study literature and become a writer. Astrid is the teenage middle child, who struggles with bulimia and has recently discovered sex. Amor is the youngest; as a child she was struck by lightning and nearly died. Rachel was born Jewish and converted to the Dutch Reformed church when she married Manie, though converted back to Judaism during her illness. She wants a Jewish burial, and her other dying wish is that one of the houses on the farm – “the Lombard place” is given to their Black maid Salome, who has worked for the family for many years, and her thirteen-year-old son Lukas. It becomes clear that it won’t happen, though Amor doesn’t understand that this is in part because laws at the time prohibited Black people from owning property.
Manie has recently become a devout Christian, largely under the influence of his minister, the highly corrupt priest Alwyn Simmers. He pays vast sums into the church in exchange for penance for his sins, for the gambling and prostitutes which Simmers promises to absolve him from, though the children, particularly Anton, detest Simmers. There’s a conflict between the Jewish and Christian sides of the family over the burial rites and processes, with Manie desperate for her to be buried in the family cemetery, even trying to bribe the Rabbi to allow it. A big argument breaks out over dinner, Anton and Amor are determined that their mother’s wishes will be honoured, both about her burial and Salome’s house, and it becomes clear that Alwyn is going to arrange for a Christian burial on the farm.
The second funeral takes place nine years later and is for Manie Swart, who has been bitten by a poisonous snake in the reptile park he owns. Anton has been estranged from him since Rachel’s death, and is living with an older woman in Johannesburg. There’s a greater sense of hope in the country and Mandela is president. Anton heads back to Pretoria for the first time in years to see his father in hospital lying in the bed next to a Black man: “Apartheid has fallen, see, we die right next to each other now, in intimate proximity. It’s just the living part we still have to work out”. There is no reconciliation, no apology between the two men before Manie dies. Anton blames Alwyn Simmers, who had encouraged Manie to get into the cage with a cobra to test his faith and raise funds for the church. Further blows come to Anton when it is revealed Alwyn is a beneficiary of the estate, is burying Manie and worst of all – the family lawyer Cherise Coutts informs Anton that unless he apologises for how he spoke to Alwyn nine years ago, he will inherit nothing. The farm is to remain intact; no part of it may be sold off except in the case of financial emergency and then only with the unanimous agreement in writing of the three children. Amor is also largely estranged and living in London and returns for the funeral with thequestion of Salome’s house on her mind. Astrid is married with children but confesses to Amor she does not love her husband Dean and is having an affair with Jake Moody, a Catholic who installed their security system. There is no mention of Salome in the will despite the laws having changed and Black people now being able to own property; by now Anton is more jaded and no longer pushes for it like Amor does. He says Salome can have guaranteed shelter and employment until she’s old, and a pension in retirement, but it doesn’t satisfy Amor.
The third funeral is Astrid’s, in 1999. Astrid is now married to Jake, who now has a successful security business in partnership with an influential Black politician – with whom Astrid is having an affair. She’s at church confessing her sins to the priest, having converted to Catholicism, and he tells her to set things right in her marriage. She goes to the mall, gets back into her car and a man is sitting in there: “Despite his pocked and dented face, he is well dressed, he is calm. He’s even smiling, as if he’s been waiting for her to pick him up. Howzit, he says to her by way of greeting, showing a gun.” He makes her drive to a deserted side street, hand over her jewellery, get in the boot, takes her to an abandoned car park where he shoots her dead, leaving her body there before reporting the death and driving off in the car, which he has been instructed to take. Anton and Jake identify her body, afterwards Anton takes Jake to the church where the priest eventually tells Jake she had been having an affair, but he doesn’t know with whom. Anton is living on the farm and is married to Desiree, who has become involved in meditation and yoga under the influence of a “good-looking local boy from Rustenburg called Mario or Marco, something like that, still in his twenties, who went off to India for a year to find himself and do spiritual stuff in ashrams, comes back here with a new name, Moti or Muti… all the bored, idle housewives are enthralled by his wisdom, or maybe just by the fact he does his classes in a loincloth.” Amor is working as a nurse on an HIV ward in Durban, and is in a relationship with a woman, Anton brings her back to the farm, Amor raises the question of Salome’s house, they reach an impasse where he only agrees to give the house if Amor agrees that he can sell a piece of land that will negatively impact Alwyn Simmers, but she says it shouldn’t be conditional.
The final funeral is Anton’s, in 2018. Anton has descended into alcoholism and with it his political idealism has faded “it’s a public holiday, Reconciliation Day or whatever they call it lately, so the staff aren’t in. They’ve got wise to their rights and have been demanding extra pay for holidays, though what they really want is to stay at home and get falling-down drunk. Same as me.” He bumps into an old army friend whose life has taken the path Anton imagined himself taking: university, family, a career. He asks Anton what he studied and he replies “never got there, actually. Had a few years of wandering around, then I settled down. Married my childhood sweetheart and been running the family farm ever since. Listens to himself with amazement. All of it true, all false”. On his way home he gets pulled over for drink driving, conducts a swift “business deal” with the policewoman and gets home to find Desiree upstairs with Moti, though they deny they were sleeping together. He goes to bed in a feverish state and wakes up sometimes just before dawn, convinced someone has broken into the farm. He grabs a gun and heads out to search for the intruder and shoots himself in the head. Anton had requested no prayers or religious service, and a cremation with his ashes to be scattered on the farm. Desiree can’t get hold of Amor (though makes little effort to) and goes ahead with the funeral, believing Moti to be a good person to give a secular sermon. Salome contacts Amor who comes back to the farm a month later and finds Anton’s unfinished autobiographical novel, which features a protagonist Aaron whose life breaks down after he kills someone in the army. Amor meets with Cherise (the family lawyer) who has been paying her share of the trust into a holding account since they couldn’t contact her, and Amor agrees with Desiree that she will walk away from her inheritance if Salome can have her house. Amor goes to visit Salome and Lukas, Salome is now in her seventies, Lukas is angry and bitter, thinking it toolittle too late; she was supposed to get it thirty years ago: “Now because all of them are dead, you come and give us a present. I saw you looking at it. Nice, nè? Three fucked-up rooms with a broken roof. And we must be grateful”. Amor also plans for her untouched trust fund money to be paid into their account, says goodbye to them both and go on to the roof to scatter Anton’s ashes into the wind.