You'll laugh at them and you'll cry with them; you'll wonder at them and you'll sigh with them. But you'll never forget the residents of Stillwater.

South Africa may now be a rainbow nation, but try telling that to the mainly white and wacky inhabitants of Stillwater. When a black minister is appointed to the local Methodist Church, the congregation are up in arms and the much feared Women's Auxiliary is on the warpath. And when the new minister's son gets caught up in a nasty assault, the locals certainly have reason to protest as well as a crime to solve. Can pensioner Teresa Thomas and her sidekick Digby save the reverend from his own doubts, his son's reckless behaviour and the crazy residents of Stillwater itself?

Rob Russell Davies' A Little Town in Africa takes a funny, off-the-wall and yet passionate look at a community still letting go of apartheid. He introduces an unlikely heroine in the shape of Teresa Thomas: a pensioner who longs for the quite life, who would rather bake cakes and clothe the poor than chase after run-aways and tussle with villains. But her conscience and sense of fair play force her to open her eyes to a very different South Africa and an array of bizarre, eccentric and sometimes downright criminal characters are soon escorting her on the adventure of a lifetime.