Bertrand a young African-American anthropologist has ostensibly come to Senegal to do field research. In truth he left his home in Denver to gain a fresh perspective on his troubled marriage. Struggling to fit in with his new Senegalese family--Alaine his wife Kene and their young daughter--Bertrand finds himself for the first time in his life haunted by surreal and increasingly violent dreams. His waking hours are no less sinister; unwittingly it seems Bertrand has become caught in the tension--sexual and otherwise--building between the married couple.