13-year-old Irish dancer Liffey Rivers is on safari in South Africa with her eccentric Aunt Jean, en route to an Irish dancing competition in Johannesburg. After dodging a charging rhino, fending off a pride of lions and re-routing an enraged mother elephant, Liffey's problems have just begun. When Liffey is confronted by a deadly Black Mamba snake in the tall savanna grasses, she must rely on instinct and her Irish dance training to survive. At the Johannesburg Feis, Liffey's troubles continue and she again finds herself, this time with a little boy in a wheelchair, in the shadow of the serpent.