In the opening pages of Bessie Head’s novel When Rain Clouds Gather, Makhaya Maseko, an educated young man, is preparing to cross the border that separates South Africa from Botswana. Makhaya is disillusioned with South African society, which is premised on discrimination against black men such as him. He sets out at night, successfully evades border patrols, and arrives in Botswana. There, he registers with the authorities and meets a welcoming companion, an old man named Dinorego, who takes Makhaya to his home village of Golema Mmidi.

Golema Mmidi has been a site of activity and transformation in agriculture. Gilbert, a vigorous young Englishman, has been trying to restructure the farming and cattle raising in the area in order to produce cash crops and higher-grade beef. While Gilbert has gained an ally in Dinorego—and has a warm relationship with Dinorego’s daughter Maria—Gilbert has also made an enemy of the local chief, Matenge, a pompous and insecure man. Fortunately, Gilbert and Makhaya take a liking to one another, and Makhaya decides to help Gilbert foster improved agricultural practices among the villagers. A case of high blood pressure sends Matenge to the hospital, and for a time the two innovators carry on without his interference.

The efforts of Gilbert and Makhaya are helped along by the counsel and initiative of two other village residents: Mma-Millipede, an older woman who is both religious and pragmatic, and Paulina Sebeso, a willful younger woman with two children. While Paulina finds herself attracted to the distant Makhaya, Gilbert decides to take Maria as his wife. Regardless of their personal relationships, Gilbert, Paulina, and Makhaya band together in a project to raise tobacco; here, Paulina is instrumental in securing the assistance of the other women in Golema Mmidi.

Disaster strikes, however, when the village cattle begin dropping dead as the result of many years of drought. This community-wide affliction is accompanied by a private woe of Paulina’s: her young son, who had been at an outpost tending the Sebeso cattle, has not returned with the other cattle ranchers. Gilbert, Paulina, and Makhaya set out, traveling through a landscape populated by vultures and littered with dead animals, and discover that both the boy and all of Paulina’s cattle are dead.

A short time afterwards, Paulina is called before Chief Matenge, who has since returned to the village and wants to bring her to trial for an unexplained transgression. She goes to his house, and a large number of villagers gather to accompany her. When Matenge sees the gathered people, he is filled with tearful self-pity. Instead of appearing before them, he hangs himself. As the novel draws to an end, Gilbert and Mma-Millipede find themselves in a position to continue enhancing the community of Golema Mmidi. Makhaya, for his part, proposes marriage to Paulina Sebeso, and she readily accepts his offer.