This novel portrays a love affair between Jadine and Son, two Black Americans

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 from very different worlds. Jadine is a beautiful Sorbonne

Sorbonne

The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...

 graduate and fashion model who has been sponsored into wealth and privilege by the Streets, a wealthy white family who employ Jadine's aunt and uncle as domestic servants. Son is an impoverished, strong-minded man who washes up at the Streets' estate on a Caribbean island.