The traditional West African fable of Kwaku Ananse is combined with the story of a young outsider named Nyan Koronhwea attending her estranged father's funeral. Nyan's father led two separate lives with two wives and two families - one in Ghana, one in the United States. Nyan's ambivalence about her father's double life is a reflection of a broader truth about the nature of our personal relationships

Ananse is a spider with a heart full of concern over the enmity existing between his friends. Instead of mediating in a straightforward way, he devises a scheme using a little deception to bring his friends to amicable terms. The moral of this folktale from Ghana is that employing the wrong means to an end brings undesired consequences, no matter how right the motive.