In the mid-1920s, English couple Jonathan and Wilemina Gunn and their two young children Dunstan and Elizabeth emigrate to the Caribbean island of Jamaica. With help from the locals they build a home in a remote rural location on the island's north coast. Previous perceptions of the island do not prepare them for the reality of the island's diverse English-speaking population that includes Negroes, East Indians, Chinese, Jews, Europeans and Syrians. This haunting saga exposes race relations, social class distinctions, and alliances in a multi-ethnic society that goes beyond the unforgiving landscape of war, turmoil, hardships and passions that proliferate even beyond Jamaica's shores.