The novel highlights how the quest for vengeance often leads one into greater problems. Vengeance is best left to God. Also, we should try and submit to God's will.
Mallam Shehu is the richest man of his time in Galma but he is childless after 35 years of marriage with 3 wives. He is unhappy about this and always asks Allah for just any child.
One night, Mallam Shehu dreams that he saw a horse he liked at the market. However, the seller told him someone had already bought it for 3 pounds. Mallam Shehu offered the seller 3 pounds 10 shillings to get the horse, to the annoyance of the first buyer. The horse had a foal and Shehu loved both of them. When the foal became rideable and Mallam Shehu rode it into the fields for the first time,it stumbled. He fell and broke an arm and a leg.
Mallam Shehu wakes up from the dream and sends for Mallam Sambo to interpret the dream for him. Mallam Sambo tells him, " The horse represents your future wife and the foal is your son with her. She is the only girl likely to give you a child. However, you will find her already engaged to another man. If you succeed in snatching her from him, she will give you a child but you will suffer a lot and regret having gone against the will of Allah. It is better to accept your fate". However, Mallam Shehu is desperate to have a child, no matter the consequences.
Mallam Audu's daughter, Zainobe, has been betrothed to Mallam Abu Bakir ever since they were children. Zainobe initially rejects Mallam Shehu's proposal but he later charms both her and her mother with a magic scent prepared by Mallam Sambo. Zainobe dumps Abu Bakir and marries Mallam Shehu against her father's wishes. The bride price rejected by Zainobe's father is offered to Abu as compensation for his investments on Zainobe. Yet, Abu rejects the gifts and money and decides to seek for vengeance. He leaves his mother in the care of his older brother, ignoring their calls to leave vengeance to God.
A year later, Zainobe bears a son, Kyauta ( "Allah be thanked") for Mallam Shehu. Kyauta grows up to be both handsome and well-mannered.
Meanwhile, Abu goes from one village to another in his quest for vengeance. He runs into a gang of thieves who ask him whether he can't find another woman to marry and leave him unhurt. Abu finally arrives Birnin Zauna da Shirin Ka (" the land where everyone holds himself in a state of readiness"), a town peopled by lawbreakers who ran away from other towns. It is a bad town where people did not do wrong in secret. Abu is referred to their leader, Tausayinka da Sauki (" the sorrow in your heart is little"). But even Tausayi fears the vengeance of Allah and makes Abu swear that the punishment for the evil Abu insists on doing shall be on his own head. Tausayi now sends him to his father at Kobonka Naka ("your penny is yours"). Tausayi's brother is to show him the way to Kurmin Rukiki (the forest containing the deadly tree whose sap will be used).
Tausayi's father persuades Abu in vain against visiting Kurmin Rukiki, telling him that no man he knows has gone there and returned alive. On his way, he runs into some evil men in the forest who take his money and horse and also cut off his left ear. He is tagged a thief at the next town because of his lost ear and jailed for 3 months. After his release, he still heads for Kurmin Rukiki. "Why would I turn back from my quest after suffering so much and almost getting there?", he tells whoever tries to persuade him.
Kurmin Rukiki is dark even at mid-day (because the sun can't penetrate its depths) and completely trackless. Abu loses one of his eyes while wandering about in the forest. A glittering object (the only source of light in the dark forest) eventually turns into an old woman, helps Abu get the sap from the right tree into his gourd, turns into a leopard and chases him out of the forest.
Abu goes back to Tausayi, who uses the sap and some other ingredients to prepare a mixture. Abu is to rub the mixture on Kyauta's skin while he is asleep, cut off some of his hair, mix the cut hair with the preparation and bury it in a newly-dug grave. Tausayi gives Abu a talisman to make him invisible while doing all these.
Abu returns to Galma, does as instructed and even wakes up Zainobe to tell her Kyauta shall be a curse to her. Zainobe assumes it is a dream because she can only hear Abu but not see him. Kyauta runs wild the following morning and becomes a disgrace to his parents as a habitual thief. He even serves a prison sentence in Kano before his father captures and handcuffs him. Two days later, he escapes and leaves for Lagos where he meets and joins forces with Dogo in robbery.
Kyauta's parents leave Galma out of shame for a faraway town where they become rich and famous again. Kyauta and Dogo wander to the town 6 years later and rob the house of Mallam Shehu ( known there as Mallam Usuman from Daraman). Kyauta slaughters his own father before knowing because he doesn't know his parents have left Galma. Zainobe helps Kyauta escape and gets Dogo arrested. Dogo later dies in prison.
Zainobe and Kyauta (who is now free from Abu's spell) return to Galma. When she tells him her "dream" about Abu, Kyauta too decides to revenge. He beheads Abu and runs away for one year, eating wild fruits and sleeping in the rain and in the sun. He returns home prematurely aged and lives with his heart-broken mother for the rest of his days.
Both Abu and Kyauta live wretched lives from avenging themselves while Mallam Shehu is killed by the son he sought for 35 years.
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