In 1930, a young boy named Peter Philip Kenneth, or PK, lives on a South African Farmhouse with his English widowed mother and nanny. After a mysterious illness kills the farm cattle and his mother suffers a breakdown, PK is sent to a boarding school run by white Africans. He faces extreme bullying for being English, but after his mother's passing, his nanny helps him overcome his fears through a healing ritual performed by a tribal healer. PK finds solace in a chicken named Mother Courage and courageously navigates the challenges ahead, with only his grandfather in Congo as family.