This is the story of the life of Abudu Olwit, and of Teboke, the village where he is born and raised. In Teboke, two Indians build a cotton ginnery, and recruit workers from Sudan and the Congo to operate the ginnery, employing a white boss to discipline the immigrants. The workers live amongst the locals but do not own the land, or speak their languages. Abudu's mother sleeps with the workers of the ginnery, and so Abudu is born. He leaves the village to study for degrees, work and marry. Things soon turn sour though. and he lands himself in prison. Upon release, he returns to the village and all its problems, resolving to engage in politics. But he discovers that politics in inseparable from violence.