Father Paul Michel, a Canadian missionary on the desperately poor Caribbean island of Ganae, rescues a black child from abject poverty and sets him on a road toward a dramatic and dangerous future as a revolutionary Catholic priest and, later, as the first democratically elected leader in a land of dictators and despair. Jeannot, as Father Paul calls him, is young and brilliant, a messianic orator, who bravely urges his black brethren to rise against their oppressors. His actions alarm the Vatican in Rome, and make deadly enemies of the cynical Ganaean bishops, the light-skinned elite, and the ruling military junta. Even Father Paul, who tells this story, is unsure of Jeannot's true motives. His enemies will stop at nothing - assassination, arson, brutal repression - to destroy him.