The sitcom is set in the late 1980’s and early 1980’s in the North West mining town of Orkney. The miner Hendrik, his wife Maggie, eldest son Ouboet (mechanic) and his wife Yolanda (hairdresser), daughter Hess (scholar and later student) and teenage son Wimpie are the main characters in a typical Afrikaans mining family. The facts that Ouboet and Yolanda are adorable and dear folks but in no way destined for academic honours, Wimpie is experiencing typical hormone driven, teenage behaviour in addition to having a doubtful best friend Koert makes the day to day happenings in the Van Tonder household very unpredictable to say the least. Although they are experiencing many a tricky situations with their challenging offspring, in-laws and neighbours, Hendrik and Maggie van Tonder prove to be “salt of the earth” folk. Later in the series they adopt two orphans in which the political changes in South Africa is reflected.
