A middle-aged American professor and his wife decide to add spice to their lives by purchasing a remote South African bush house. Sitting with Elephants shares the couple's adventures and insights after they buy the house online, move in, and then find themselves encountering lions and leopards in front of the house, zebras in the garage, baboons hiding in the loft, and hyenas stealing and eating their flashlights. They also encounter poachers looking for rhinos and a herd of wild elephants who regularly appear at the thin wire fence separating the house from Kruger National Park. These elephants become the centerpiece of the narrative as the couple learns how to humbly approach, sit down, and communicate with the elephants. Emails sent to the couple's adult children tie the narrative together. Intermixing funny with dramatic stories, these emails provide inspirational insights that provide guides for living in the bush as well as contemporary society.