A young interracial couple takes a shortcut through the oldest colonial site in South Africa, The Company's Garden. The boyfriend makes a grim observation about the garden's history of slavery, so his 'woke' white girlfriend tries to lighten the mood by clambering up an Apartheid-era statue. She talks him into climbing up with her. Things take a turn for the worse when a young security guard violently intervenes.

An older guard breaks up the fight, and pleads to the furious couple to forgive his colleague because he is new on the job and made an honest mistake: he thought that the 'brother' was an unsavoury character chasing the 'madam' up the statue. The couple, still in a state of shock, starts to question themselves. Did the young guard really just make an honest mistake?

Meanwhile, the guards get summoned to another part of the city, on their perpetual duty of keeping the streets safe for middle-class taxpayers and tourists. After they've left, the couple stands in silence as they contemplate their place in this eternally complex country. The man finds himself comforting his girlfriend even though he is the one who had been attacked.