Starting off with simple smash-and-grabs and petty crime, Lucky Kunene quickly graduates to more aggressive heists such as armed robbery and carjacking. He soon realizes that he needs a bigger score to fulfill his goals of making it big and escaping from the slums to a dream house by the sea. He hatches an elaborate, violent plan to make his fortune: hijacking buildings from Johannesburg-tenement landlords by winning the tenants' favor, then holding their rent hostage from the landowners. His high-profile real estate acquisitions attract the attention of the local police force, who has qualms about using unprovoked brutality to bring him down. His trouble with the law, coupled with an escalating war between a local drug lord, creates a tense standoff: both sides are closing in, and Kunene must stay one step ahead--or his empire, and his life, will come crashing down.