'The Track' is a railway track that connects DeRust with the outside world and Oudtshoorn. The characters all live alongside this railway track. "The Track" connects their different stories, and provides the mechanics to drive the plot. A high-ranking English prince is to visit Oudtshoorn at the turn of the century, at the time of the first economic boom in ostrich feathers. The inhabitants of DeRust are determined to get the prince to stop at or, at a push, to slow down in DeRust as he makes his majestic way to Oudtshoorn.