When Precious Ramotswe was young, she spent her days with Obed, her father, in the wilds of Botswana learning the secrets of nature, and with that the joys of a natural inquisitiveness and intuition. When Obed dies, he leaves Precious the first ‘step-up’ into her new career – one hundred and eighty cows. With this investment she decides to become her country’s first ever female detective. With a bad marriage to jazz musician Note Makoti behind her, the sassily independent Precious Ramotswe embarks on a radical and exciting new chapter in her life.