The central story takes place in the four days leading up to Kenya’s independence in 1963, with frequent flashbacks to events that happen as early as the 1920s.
In the village of Thabai, a man named Mugo desires to live a solitary life now that he has been released from the detention camps. However, he is unwillingly engaged by the Movement, Kenya’s league of Freedom Fighters and nationalists bent on reclaiming their sovereignty from the British colonialists. The Movement seems pervasive throughout rural Kenya. Although no one is sure exactly when or how it began, it is generally assumed that it formed shortly after the first white missionaries arrived from England, who slowly and deceitfully gathered power and land for themselves before making way for British soldiers and administrators.
Mugo has only had one interaction with the Movement, at a meeting where he heard Kihika, the revolutionary leader, speak as a young man. Not long after that meeting, Kihika becomes a leader of the Freedom Fighters based in Thabai, becoming known as “the terror of the whiteman.” Although he is eventually captured and executed, Kihika’s martyrdom becomes a symbol of the Movement. Representatives from the Party and prominent members of the village—a shopkeeper named Gikonyo, and two village elders who devoted their entire lives to the Movement, Warui and Wambui—ask Mugo to lead their independence celebration in a few days and become a village Chief, since everyone knows that Mugo helped Kihika hide from the colonial soldiers after he assassinated a colonial District Officer. Furthermore, two of Kihika’s comrades, General R. and Lt. Koina, have discovered that Kihika was betrayed to his death, and hope to reveal the culprit during the independence celebration and bring the traitor to justice. Mugo is torn by this, since it was actually he himself who betrayed Kihika, though no one in the village knows his crime. After the meeting is over, Gikonyo returns home to his wife, Mumbi, who makes him dinner and tries to speak with him. However, Gikonyo acknowledge her as little as possible—they are clearly estranged.
Another Thabai villager, Karanja, works for the British colonizers in a nearby agricultural research station in Githima. Though he has betrayed his countrymen’s quest to rid themselves of the British and be free, Karanja enjoys the power that his proximity to the whiteman affords him, especially in the eyes of his fellow villagers—since Karanja is himself afraid of white people. Although Karanja views his work as very important, he only writes labels for library books and performs mundane errands for John Thompson, a former District Officer; his wife, Margery; and occasionally Dr. Lynd. A rumor that the Thompsons will soon leave Kenya troubles Karanja, since his power will leave with them, but he cannot find the courage to ask either John or Margery about the matter.
John Thompson himself is dispirited by Kenya’s quickly approaching independence. As a young man, Thompson developed a firm belief in the righteousness of expanding the British Empire, convinced that its Western ideals were a purifying and moralizing force upon the savage, primitive world. He even began writing a manuscript of a book outlining his beliefs, but now, on the eve of Kenyan independence and his exit from Africa, it all feels meaningless.
Although Mugo does not wish it, the people of his village and the surrounding areas begin to see him as their hero, a stalwart and trustworthy figure. That night, he finds Gikonyo waiting for him in his hut, wishing to confess a great burden he has carried for years. Like Mugo, Gikonyo spent many years in British detention camps on suspicion of being a Freedom Fighter. Unlike Mugo, however, Gikonyo confessed to taking the oath to aid the Freedom Fighters in their crusade against the British, hoping in vain that it would earn him an early release so he could return to his wife. The guilt he feels for confessing haunts him still, many years later. Worse yet, when Gikonyo returned from six years of detention, he discovered that Mumbi had given birth to a child by friend and rival of his youth, Karanja. Karanja is now the chief of the colonial security force governing Thabai, which oppresses the villagers and uses them as slave labor. Gikonyo is shamed, furious at Mumbi, powerless against Karanja, and feels as if life has lost its meaning. After Gikonyo finishes his confession to Mugo, Mugo decides that he will bury his past and accept the role asked of him, envisioning himself as a savior, leading his people to freedom.
Mugo walks to Gikonyo’s house the next morning to announce his decision, but instead meets Mumbi, who also wants to confide her story to Mugo. Mumbi tells Mugo about the forced labor the village endured after most of the men were arrested and put in detention camps, including Mugo, who was jailed for attempting to stop a soldier from beating a woman to death. Living under a strict curfew and martial law, the people of Thabai were put to forced labor for several years. All of the women who lost husbands to the detention camps believed they would never see them again. Kihika was one of the few men remaining in the village, and offered Mumbi and Gikonyo’s mother occasional help and food until Mumbi discovered that he was working for the British colonialists. After this, she despised him. Karanja became the reigning chief of Thabai and a ruthless governor, but several times professed his love to Mumbi and tried to persuade her to be with him. She always refused, since she despised him. However, one day, Karanja ordered her to his house and announced that her husband—whom she had long believed to be dead—would be coming home soon. Mumbi was so shocked that when Karanja took advantage of her, she did not resist and became pregnant with his child. As Mumbi finishes telling her story to an overwhelmed Mugo, General R. and Lt. Koina enter and announce that they believe Karanja is Kihika’s betrayer. Mugo panics, declaring that he cannot lead the celebration or the village. With this, Mugo runs from Mumbi’s hut.
While Karanja is still obsessing over whether or not the Thompsons will leave Kenya, one of Lt. Koina’s comrades persuades Karanja to attend the upcoming independence celebration so that they may trap him there and bring him to justice before all the people. Meanwhile, John and Margery Thompson say their goodbyes to their British co-workers.
After being cheated on a business deal, Gikonyo takes his anger out on Mumbi, beating her and calling her a “whore.” Mumbi leaves his house and moves in with her parents. Gikonyo’s mother is furious with him. Meanwhile, Mugo walks through the village, which now feels less disconnected to him than it once did. Mumbi’s story touched him in a strange way, and his self-imposed isolation seems threatened. He meets Warui and Gikonyo and tells them he is unwell, and cannot lead. However, by refusing to lead, the people of Thabai view Mugo as even more humble and virtuous, and his renown quickly spreads, making him a nearly mythical figure overnight.
Wambui asks Mumbi to try to convince Mugo to lead, since it is what the people want. When she goes to his hut, Mugo makes his own confession to her: years before Mugo’s detention, after Kihika assassinated a particularly evil District Officer, Kihika arrived unexpectedly in Mugo’s hut, asking to be hidden from the soldiers who were searching the village for him. Although Kihika trusted Mugo and saw him as a stalwart figure, Mugo was secretly furious at Kihika for implicating him in the fight against the British. After Kihika left, Mugo was terrified that the British would discover him and brand him a terrorist like the other Freedom Fighters, so he betrayed Kihika to John Thompson, who was at that point the District Officer over Thabai. While at first, Mugo’s act of betrayal made him feel courageous, he quickly regretted his crime, but could not take it back. While Mumbi is initially horrified by Mugo’s story and filled with scorn, this turn to pity when she sees the pain in Mugo’s eyes. She decides not to reveal what she knows to anyone else, even though Kihika was her own brother. She leaves, and Mugo is mentally tormented throughout the night by his own shame, but knows what he must do.
The independence celebrations begin at night with singing and dancing. People from all over the region have gathered near Thabai to celebrate, and they sing songs about Kihika and Mugo and freedom. Although they surround Mugo’s hut and sing to him for over an hour, he will not emerge. The next morning, the ceremony of remembrance, where Kihika’s betrayer is to be revealed, is preceded by a foot race. Gikonyo and Karanja race against each other, but both fall in the final stretch. Gikonyo breaks his arm and is sent to the hospital, Mumbi leaves, embarrassed by her estrangement with her husband, but Karanja remains for the ceremony. Since Mugo will not speak, General R. stands to speak in his stead. However, as he is about to accuse Karanja of treachery, Mugo arrives confesses to the whole gathering that he betrayed Kihika. The crowd is stunned into silence and lets Mugo walk away unharmed. Rather than be angered by his treachery, they are stunned and impressed by his willingness to sacrifice honor, power, and wealth for the sake of the truth.
General R., Lt. Koina, and Wambui arrive at Mugo’s hut in the night to hold a trial in the forest and execute him. Although Mugo desires to live, he peaceably accepts this punishment for his crime. Karanja—now a traitor to his people, shorn of his power without the whiteman present, and spurned by Mumbi—leaves in shame, exiling himself to wander alone, away from Thabai, Mumbi, and all that he has known. Gikonyo, though he is lying in the hospital, hears about Mugo’s confession and is touched by his courage, hoping that he, too, may someday be so brave. He realizes that he has treated Mumbi wrongfully, and begins to take the first steps of attempting to reconcile himself to her.
