In the middle of the night in December, a man tries to swim to the shore after jumping overboard. He manages to get aboard a yacht that lands in the Isle des Chevaliers. The man disembarks and the sound of music and smell of food leads him into a mansion where he hides in a closet.
The mansion is owned by a wealthy white man named Valerian Street. He lives in there with his wife Margaret. They came to live there three years ago from the United States. Valerian has promised his wife that they will go back to the States one day, but he seems to enjoy his time on the island and especially in his greenhouse where he isolates himself all the time.
One morning over breakfast the couple engage in their routine verbal fight. Margaret is excited that their son Michael is coming to visit for Christmas, but Valerian is not convinced that he will come. He objects to the fact that she has invited a lot of guests and that she never cooks. She strikes back by saying that he has come to hate people which is the reason why their son Michael doesn't visit often.
In the house's kitchen, the two black servants, Sydney and his wife Ondine, discuss the Christmas dinner details. They are joined by their niece Jadine Childs. Jadine is a beautiful young lady who has come to visit right after finishing her studies (that Valerian paid for) in Paris.
One night, Valerian and Margaret have a heated argument over dinner in the presence of Jadine. The fight ends with Margaret going to her room where she is heard screaming and the only word she utters when they find her is "black." When Sydney goes to check the room with a gun, he comes back with a black man that he says was hiding in the closet. To everybody's surprise, Valerian invites the man for a drink and to stay.
The next morning Margaret has locked herself up in her room and expresses her disgust at the fact that her husband has invited a stranger who was hiding in her closet for a drink and to stay in the house. She thinks that he has done so only to humiliate her.
At breakfast, Valerian invites the man to sit and eat with him. Valerian learns that the man's name is Son. He is an American who jumped from a ship and then made his way through the house in search of food. When Jadine is in her room checking the fur coat that her rich white boyfriend has sent to her, she is joined by Son. There is tension in the air between the two as Son frightens Jadine by his looks and language. The two have a fight and Jadine storms out of the room angry and confused.
Days later, however, Jadine becomes more sympathetic towards Son as he has become less frightening after cleaning, shaving, cutting his hair, and putting on new clothes. Jadine eventually invites him for a picnic and the two seem to get along very well despite the differences in their backgrounds.
The day of the Christmas dinner, none of the invited guests, including Michael, come to the house. Valerian decides instead to invite everybody to the dinner; Sydney, Ondine, Jadine, Son, and Margaret all sit around the table to eat and chat. Valerian announces that he fired the two servants Therese and Gideon because they stole apples. Ondine is upset at this news because the two servants were helping her a lot. Tensions mount between the different characters that culminate in a fist fight between Ondine and Margaret. When the two are separated, Ondine reveals that Margaret was torturing and abusing her son Micheal by sticking pins in his behind and by burning him with cigarettes. This deeply shocks Valeriane. Jadine is also terrified at what happened and asks Son to come to sleep with her in the bed to comfort her.
Son and Jadine leave the island for New York. There they rent an apartment and work in several odd jobs. Despite the fact that the two seem to enjoy the company of each other as lovers, Son insists that he wishes to live in his hometown Eloe. They eventually head there for a visit. Eloe is a small rural town. While Son feels that he is in his element, Jadine is bored and hates everything about it. When they return to New York, their relationship changes for the worst and they fight all the time. After a heated argument, Jadine leaves Son and decides to go back to Paris. She first goes back to the island to recuperate the fur coat that her white boyfriend sent her. Before she travels to Paris, she tells Ondine and Sydney not to inform Son of her whereabouts.
Shortly after Jadine leaves for Paris, Son arrives at the island looking for Jadine. He finds Therese and Gideon who advise him to let go of the girl. When Son insists, Therese tells him that she will take him to Valerian's house in Isle des Chevaliers by boat. As she takes him up the river in a boat, a heavy fog falls and it is very hard to see anything. At the back of the island, Therese tells him to go ashore and he will find his way. He doubts that, telling her that the house is far from here, but she keeps pushing him and telling him that he will find his way. When he is in the water, she moves away and tells him to not go to Valerian's house and to forget her because she has forgotten her ancient properties. She tells him that the horsemen, the descendants of the first slaves of the island, are waiting for him and that he must choose them to free himself from Jadine. The jungle opens its trees and leaves to welcome Son as he has clearly chosen to join the horsemen.
