"Kwame Johnson, an African-American academic serving a stint as a cultural diplomat, is sent to visit a remote Congo post where an officer is establishing an American cultural center. But the officer has disappeared. Kwame tries to discover what happened, but in vain. He's instructed to set up the center himself. Kwame finds companions among the expats living at his hotel. He expects to marry his white fiancée in Paris within several months. But the languor of the town undercuts his plan. While attempting to find out about his fellow officer, he befriends Kalima, the beautiful Congolese wife of an expat who has deserted her.

She lives with a Nigerian doctor resident at the hotel. She and Kwame begin an affair. The doctor takes this in stride. He and Kwame arrange to share her favors. Danger always lurks in the Congo. For Kwame one danger is romantic and he falls in love with her. Her father objects to this liaison with another "white man" and attempts to disrupt the romance. Unrest from the Rwanda massacres spreads toward Kwame's town, while other characters are assassinated, forcing Kwame and Kalima to become exiles who must discover how to flee the Congo and find refuge elsewhere"--.