Gaël was five years old when his mother, Didy, died. Memories of her have since been lost in the fury of the civil wars, genocide and AIDS that ravaged Burundi and then Rwanda, precipitating her exile to Switzerland. Thirty years on, he ventures to reopen the pages of his family history by meeting those who knew his mother.

A novelist attends the trial of a woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her to the rising tide on a beach in northern France. But as the trial continues, her own family history, doubts, and fears about motherhood are steadily dislodged as the life story of the accused is gradually revealed.

Across time, a Black woman seeks to piece together the fragments of Black female figures and, guided by Black Venus, attempts to regain control of their narrative.