With fine, simple strokes and a transparent melancholy, the exotic panorama of colonial life in the 1920s and 1930s unfolds. It begins with the idyllic childhood on a plantation between the manor house and the huts, between tropical abundance and European longing for coolness and order. Two boys grow up here like brothers; one is the son of the plantation owner, and the other is the son of the native overseer. Their close friendship initially knows no internal boundaries of colonial society, but with adulthood comes mutual estrangement, and attempts to bridge this gap fail. The friends lose sight of each other, and the idyll increasingly turns into a battleground. In the end, a reunion takes place under the shadow of violence.