When London-based media and publicity consultant Emma le Roux receives a desperate call from her brother—who had vanished decades earlier—she returns to South Africa and is drawn into a deadly conspiracy involving poaching, political corruption, and the mysterious death of Mozambican presidential candidate Armando Catano. Together with bodyguard Martin Dekker and police detective Colonel Jack Phatudi, Emma begins to unravel a web of power, violence, and mystery in the Lowveld—secrets that have remained buried for more than twenty years.

Across the city of Cape Town, a sex-line operator, a dog handler and a computer technician begin to suspect that their romantic relationships are the subject of a bizarre conspiracy, involving their family, friends, and possibly even greater forces. 'Love the One You Love's parallel stories question the ideals we hold too sacred: love, happiness, and the New South Africa; the pursuit of which makes truth impossible.