The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Matthee, Dalene. Fiela's Child. Penguin Books, 2005.

The novel begins on the day that a young boy disappears under his parent's watch in a South African forest. Elias van Rooyen and his wife Barta are distraught and look for their son, Lukas, for eight days before they give up hope of finding him alive.

A white boy named Benjamin grows up in the Long Kloof with his black family led by Fiela Komoetie who has raised him since he was a young child. Fiela worries constantly that Benjamin will be taken away when people realize that she cannot be his biological mother. When census workers arrive in the Long Kloof, they are stricken by the presence of a white child and insist on taking him before the magistrate under suspicion that he may be Lukas van Rooyen. Fiela buys herself more time with Benjamin but continues to worry.

When the government employees return months later, they take Benjamin away to Knysna to bring him before the magistrate. Benjamin is taken away on a days-long journey by horse cart. When he arrives in front of the magistrate, he pleads to be returned to Fiela. The magistrate also calls Elias and Barta. Barta identifies Benjamin as her son, and the magistrate rules that Benjamin must be returned to the forest with his parents. Benjamin is despondent.

Fiela decides to travel to Knysna and try to plead with the magistrate to return Benjamin to her. When she arrives after walking for days, he refuses her request.

Benjamin begins living with Elias, Barta, and his other siblings, but he does not feel as though he belongs with them. He is unable to leave behind his memories of Fiela and desperately wants to return to the Long Kloof. His sister, Nina, frequently escapes Elias' abuse in the forest, playing and discovering. Benjamin often joins her.

Fiela and her family attempt to get back to work in order to forget the absence of Benjamin. She pleads with Petrus Zondagh, a wealthy white man who helped her husband in the past, in order to have somebody of higher status ask for Benjamin's return. In the meantime, Benjamin tries to fit into his new family.

Petrus Zondagh informs Fiela that there is nothing he can do to help her get Benjamin back. Seven years pass, and Benjamin has still not returned to Fiela. Benjamin has begun spending time at the ocean where he regains memories from being a child. He learns how to row boats and build ships. He begins feeling a strange attraction to Nina, and worries that he must not really be her brother. Benjamin returns to visit Fiela and gets advice from her.

Barta reveals to Benjamin that she made a mistake in identifying him as Lukas. Benjamin decides to live as Benjamin Komoetie, beginning a relationship with Nina. Benjamin returns to his new life at the sea, promising to come back to live in the Long Kloof with Fiela.