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Intro
A Black man who goes by the name Son jumps off a ship in the Caribbean and eventually lands on the Isle de Chevaliers, which was populated by escaped enslaved people about 300 years ago. On the island, a wealthy white man named Valerian Street has built an extravagant winter house that has become his primary residence since he retired from his job heading a candy company three years ago. Valerian’s wife, Margaret, joins him on the island for Christmas, and she’s anxiously awaiting a visit from their son, Michael. Sydney and Ondine, Valerian’s Black servants, respectively, are also on the island, along with Sydney and Ondine’s niece, Jadine. Sydney and Ondine adopted Jadine at 12 after both of her parents had died. Since then, Valerian has helped pay for Jadine’s education, and she is now a fashion model who splits her time between Paris and New York.
Sydney, Ondine, and Jadine begin to notice that food has been going missing and speculate about who might be taking it. One night at dinner, Margaret and Valerian get into a fight. Margaret leaves the table to go upstairs to her room and finds a Black man—Son—hiding in her closet. Surprising everyone, Valerian invites the stranger to stay for dinner and to spend the night at the house.
The next afternoon, Jadine finds Son in her bedroom. He threatens her before pressing himself against her. Jadine asks him to stop and is surprised when he does. She later goes to tell Valerian what happened, sure that it will result in Son’s banishment from the house, but she finds Valerian and Son laughing together in the greenhouse, which is where Valerian spends most of his time. Son then goes to the nearby island of Dominique with Gideon and Thérèse, who also work for the Streets. In Dominique, Son gets a haircut, and when he returns, Jadine is struck by his beauty.
None of the invited guests show up for Christmas dinner. Margaret is especially despondent that Michael hasn’t come. At dinner, Valerian announces that he fired Gideon and Thérèse after he caught them stealing apples. Son tells Valerian that he mistreats the Black people. Valerian tells Son to leave the house, but Son refuses to go. Ondine and Margaret then begin arguing, which results in Ondine telling everyone at the table that when Michael was a child, Margaret repeatedly abused him by sticking pins into his skin and putting out cigarettes on his body. Margaret doesn’t deny the abuse, and Valerian can’t believe what he hears. He thinks that his lack of knowledge about the abuse makes him as guilty as if he had committed the crime himself.
Son leaves the island for New York two days later. Jadine follows him there, though she doesn’t tell anyone that she is going to meet him. The two live in an apartment together and struggle to reconcile their ideas of what they each want from their relationship and their lives. They also argue about their outlooks on the world, particularly what it means to be Black in a world shaped by colonialism, the legacy of enslavement, and white supremacy.
Together, they go to visit Son’s hometown of Eloe, Florida. Although Son would like to live there, Jadine thinks the close-knit community is judgmental and stifling. While there, she has a dream about women from her past and in Son’s life who seem to be judging her character and her desire for independence. She leaves Eloe and goes back to New York. She waits for Son to return, but he doesn’t arrive until days after when he said he would.
After Son returns, he and Jadine continue to argue, and their fights often turn violent. During one of those fights, Son rapes Jadine and then leaves their apartment. When he returns to hours later, Jadine is gone. She goes to Isle de Chevaliers to get her things, including a sealskin coat, which was a gift from her former fiancé, a wealthy, white European man named Ryk. When Jadine sees Ondine, Jadine tells her that she’s returning to Paris but won’t be marrying Ryk. Ondine tells Jadine that she has let Sydney and her down by not taking care of them in their old age and that she hasn’t learned to be a good woman. Jadine disregards Ondine’s criticism and boards a flight bound for Paris.
Meanwhile, Son decides that he wants to get Jadine back at any cost. He travels to Dominique, where he finds Gideon and Thérèse and asks them to help him find Jadine. He plans to go to the Streets’ house on Isle de Chevalier and demand that they tell him where Jadine is. Gideon says he won’t help Son because he’s sure Son’s plan will only lead to destruction. Thérèse, though, agrees to help. Even though it’s dark, she ferries Son to the Isle de Chevaliers. She takes him to the far side of the island, though, which is miles from the Streets’ house. She tells Son that he should stop trying to find Jadine because she has lost her connection to her “ancient properties.” Instead, Thérèse says, he should join the mythical horsemen who are the embodiment of the escaped enslaved people who initially populated the island. Son gets out of the boat, climbs the rocks to the island, and begins running through the forest.
