Star of the Morning

Born on the wrong side of a racial divide in apartheid-torn Cape Town, young sisters Ruby and Rose exist in a world where they are not welcome. As part of the Cape Colored community they are considered socially inferior, and even within their own social group the sisters live in the poor end of town. When their mother dies from a protracted illness, the girls’ fate falls into the hands of Aunt Olive. Ruby knows that their aunt’s home will not be open to them—charity does not extend to the poor relations who would cast a smudge on such a respectable house. Instead, Aunt Olive condemns her nieces to the local orphanage, relieving her conscience with monthly invitations to Sunday lunch. In the orphanage the girls grow up sheltered from a divided world that they do not yet fully understand, but the day approaches when Ruby and Rose must forge their own paths in life and confront the lessons that apartheid enforces.