In post-apartheid South Africa, wiry 11-year-old Wonderboy is trying to survive on the crime-ridden streets of Johannesburg. Kobus, a former soldier of the apartheid army, can't forget "good old days" when he was "somebody": a man honoured for his bravery. Now he's hoping for something to make life worthwhile again. Kobus takes a job as a traveling deliveryman. His pickup loaded to the brim with tins of Rainbow Wax to shine up the nation's furniture, Kobus encounters Wonderoy at a traffic intersection; hoping for some change, the boy eagerly cleans the car's windscreen. Gangster Stix appears, waving a gun and wanting to kill Wonderboy. The boy has only one chance: to leap into Kobus' car, urging him to drive like hell because he is about to be "car-jacked". Kobus buys it and they race off, shaking off the gunmen. Kobus wants to get rid of the "little gangster" as soon as he can. But he needs someone to guard the car--and he is not much of a salesman. Wonderboy uses all his street-wise skills to make Rainbow Wax big business. So begins a journey in which they move from mutual antagonism and suspicion--even hatred--to friendship, in which they come to terms with a troubled past and create an unexpected future.
—Steven Canclini