When Jefferson Vitrack -- the white half-brother of Benjamin January's wife -- turns up on January's doorstep in the summer of 1838 claiming he has discovered a clue to the whereabouts of the family's lost treasure, January has no hesitation about refusing to help look for it. For the treasure lies in Haiti, the island that was once France's most profitable colony -- until the blood-chilling repression practiced there by the whites upon their slaves triggered a savage rebellion.