Returning to Africa for a school reunion after a thirty year separation, the country of Carol's troubled and unconventional childhood is in many ways much changed, but in others hauntingly familiar. As memories of her life as a young girl are stirred up by new encounters and shared recollections, a young African boy appears and throws into relief the stark differences between their upbringings, as well as some similarities. Freedom is twelve and when Carol meets him first, he has not eaten in two days, needs clothes to wear and has no clear future ahead of him. A Child Called Freedom tells the story of Freedom's life living, as he does, in Soweto - once the scene of a bloody uprising in which thousands of children protested against the oppressive education system and now barely progressed and offering little hope to this young boy. These two childhood stories are woven together to show how the power of human relationships, courage and spirit can sometimes overcome even the most oppressive of circumstances.