When a photographer witnesses war crimes, will she have to abandon her calling to save herself? As Lena and Kojo work in conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Darfur, Sudan and other places across East and Central Africa, there is immense psychological pressure, and it's not certain if their relationship will survive. Eighteen years later, Bene walks the gritty back streets of Paris for one night in a music festival. He is on his way to meet his father in Nairobi, Kenya, a man he's never met. Ahead of the Shadows is about the intense relationships that come from work in war zones, the transmission of trauma from one generation to the next, and how one unconventional boy might be able to break the cycle.