A nineteen-year-old Dominican American man returns to the Dominican Republic to visit his sick mother, who receives more affordable care in the DR. There, he meets up with fellow Brown student Alex, who is rich and likes to have fun and take photos. They follow the unfolding events of la Negrura in Haiti, a disease where black lumps come out of people's appendages. The disease also makes the infected act in strange ways. They must quarantine together, and they become magnets to one another— if separated from the other infected, those with the Negrura find their way back to each other. At times throughout the day, they screech in unison for two or three minutes. The disease ravages Haiti. Alex and his friends go clubbing in the DR as la Negrura takes hold. There, the nineteen-year-old gringo meets Alex's friend Mysty and is immediately attracted to the harsh, stubborn woman who does not like him back. He finds himself staying in the DR because of her, despite the fact that Mysty herself thinks the DR has nothing to offer and wants to go to France herself. Alex takes pictures of Mysty as part of his photography kick and becomes interested in the art of those affected by la Negrura. The disease continues to worsen in Haiti, but the world does not pay attention until the infected begin to massacre those around them with no regard for life, even that of their loved ones. Healthy Haitians began fleeing the country. Two weeks later, the U.S. sends troops to Port-au-Prince. They drop a bomb that causes a blackout within a six-hundred mile radius. People begin planning for the end of the world, but Alex convinces his friends to go to the site. Alex takes his Polaroid.