In the vast expanse of South Africa’s Mala Mala game reserve, a host of Africa’s largest and fiercest wildlife species compete for food, mates and territory against the backdrop of a harsh dry season. Track the interconnecting lives of this wild community, locked in a never-ending battle to stay alive. At the heart of it all is a pride of lions. Challenged from all sides by other big characters in the area, relationships constantly take unexpected turns. Shera is the matriarch of the Mala Mala pride, who struggles to rear her cubs in the face of attack from rival males. She is also a successful hunter and leads her pride into the thick of the resident 500-strong buffalo herd. The buffalo are weak and thin at this time of year, strained by the heat, the lack of lush grazing and their daily pilgrimage to the ever-shrinking Sand River. Shera’s younger sister doesn’t have young of her own. She is a valuable babysitter when the pride sets out to hunt and the cubs need her, for there are many enemies in this neighbourhood