Janina is an older woman in her sixties who lives alone in a cottage in the Table Mountains. She is assailed by an odd variety of physical symptoms that she calls afflictions. Other people view her as cranky and eccentric. Although Janina is an atheist, she believes that every event in life can be explained through astrology. Her generally tragic view of life is tempered by the belief that the universe has an intrinsic order. When murders start occurring in the vicinity, she ties each incident to the birth chart of the victim. The police, in particular, find her annoying because of the letters she sends them about astrology and the crimes. They also dismiss her constant complaints about illegal hunting near her home.

Janina is a vegetarian who is passionately devoted to the rights of all living creatures, which is why she finds hunting so offensive. The murder of her two little dogs by hunters sends her over the edge, and she decides to mete out justice on behalf of all slaughtered animals. Then, she proceeds to kill members of the local hunt club. With the help of her friends, Janina eludes capture for her crimes and lives out her days in peace in a nature preserve that is geographically removed from the dark events in her past.