Age of Iron is about Mrs. Curren, an elderly woman in apartheid-era South Africa who is dying of cancer. She writes a long letter to her daughter while observing the increasing violence and injustice around her.
As her condition worsens, she forms an unexpected bond with Vercueil, a homeless man who stays with her. She also witnesses the suffering and deaths of Black youths involved in resistance against the apartheid regime.
The novel links her personal decline with the moral collapse of society, showing how illness, death, and political violence are deeply connected.