It's 1799 and the African slave trade is at its height. Chima - a young Ibo blacksmith - is carried away with his whole village by brutal slaveraiders. Chima and his best friend, Ofo - an Ibo holyman - are sold to Virginia planters. There they struggle to maintain their African identity, but in the end Chima's friend is killed by a white overseer. To Chima the murder has also doomed his friend's ghost to wander this inhospitable land forever. He kills the overseer and escapes, barely eluding packs of dogs and white slave hunters. Then, with every white hand set against him, he travels west - seeking freedom in the lands where the sun goes to rest. And where Arochuku - the sun god - reigns over all.