A middle-aged Cape Town academic loses his job after a somewhat abusive affair with a mixed race student. He goes to live with his lesbian daughter on her farm in the bush in an area predominately worked by black neighbours. Coetzee's award winning novel about the complexities of life in post-apartheid South Africa are brought to the screen in a surprisingly coherent manner and Malkovitch surpasses himself as the monstrous poetry Professor confronting both himself and the new confused South Africa.