A World War 1 infantry rifle calls itself The Rifle and narrates its life story. It reads the mind of the human holding it and senses the human’s emotions. The Rifle’s first owner is “FC,” and it reveals his emotional experiences fighting in WW1 in muddy trenches. After the war, The Rifle and FC go hunting in Africa, where FC befriends a Bushman living his historical 100,000-year-old hunter-gatherer lifestyle. The two humans become mutually respected friends for a lifetime and each learns the other's native language. The Rifle graphically describes human emotions when killing a human or an African antelope.

The rifle, however, is itself untouched by human emotions but is intrigued by the emotion of love. The book characters journey through the African deserts, river canyons, and Savannas of Namibia. The Rifle keeps serendipitously returning to each generation of FC’s descendants. Each new generation does not know that The Rifle they hold had been in the hands of the preceding family generation.

The description of game tracking and following antelope spoor in the bush is fascinating. They hunt big antelope, a lion, and rock rabbits. Finally, a hundred years later, FC and the Bushman's toddler grandchildren meet and play on the carpet in front of an old African farmhouse fireplace. The Rifle is rusting, and it has an unexpected experience while watching an extended family Christmas get-together while mounted above the fireplace of an aging leaking roof pioneer tin farmhouse. No one knows this neglected old military rifle mounted on the wall once belonged to the long-deceased grandfather FC.

The book explores the meaning of death to discover a meaning for life. The first owner, FC, develops PTSD after his war-trench experiences, which he conceals. The complex story is very entertaining. It is a fascinating historical adventure. Ultimately, The Rifle rusts and the story ending is unforeseeable.

The author cried for the book characters while writing the book.