Content Warning: This section of the guide contains descriptions of sexual assault and gender-based violence. It also contains references to historical racial segregation and oppression.

Mma Precious Ramotswe is the only female private detective in Botswana. The office of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency is simple, with two desks, two chairs, a telephone, a typewriter, and a tea set. Mma Ramotswe’s considers her most important assets to be her intuition and intelligence. She founded the agency with the profits from the sale of a herd of cattle she inherited when her father died, fulfilling his final wish for her to own a business. The agency opened to considerable attention: Mma Ramotswe was interviewed on Radio Botswana and in The Botswana News. As a result, her services were in high demand shortly after opening. She realized that people in Botswana love to talk and were often flattered to be approached by a private detective.

One of her earliest cases was brought by a young woman named Happy Bapetsi. Happy explains that her father left when she was very young, and that she and her mother never heard from him again, though they heard rumors that he was dead.