Synopsis
The year is 1955. The setting is a small town in the Netherlands. Rick is eleven years old an lives with his mother and aunt. His mother's lover, Jeff, is nice enough to Rick, though the boy finds the tobacconist rather dull. Rick often thinks of his father, an RAF hero who was shot down during the war and whom Rick has never seen. Jeff could never compare to, much less replace, the real-life hero Rick believes his father to be.At school, Rick sees a film about explorers in the Congo and he falls under the spell of the Darkest Africa. After arguing with his mother about Jeff, Rick decides to journey to Africa to search for the 'missing link' himself. During his journey, Rick reads the diary he surreptitiously borrowed from his mother. In it he discovers that his father was not an RAF hero, but a married man. Rick is devastated and his whole world crumbles around him