Jadin, the French Managing Director of a West African trading company in the 1940s, is so addicted to the old order of slave traders, that hereduces his employees to mental and emotional subjugation, destroying their sense of self-worth and dehumanising them. Laurent arrives to challenge Jadin's ruthlessness, but the face-off doesn't last for long. When Laurent replaces Jadin, he turns out to be an even worse example of one of the last slave traders.