The scene is teeming Zanzibar just before the American Civil War, when the Isle of Cloves was a centre of African slave trade. To it comes Hero Athena Hollis, a Boston bluestocking filled with self-righteousness and bent on good deeds. Then she meets Rory Frost, a cynical, wicked, shrewd and good-humoured trader in slaves. What is Hero to make of him (and of her feelings for him)?
