Giustinia, a poet and critic from Florence, comes to Anjavavy Island, a small island in Northern Madagascar. She visits her friend Shay, an African-American scholar who spends part of the year living in the Red House. The Red House is a vacation villa and a small hotel that she and her husband, Senna, own. At the time of Giustinia's visit, a criminal is at large on the island for cutting off people's heads. There is an atmosphere of lawlessness under the cover of the island's beauty. During the visit, Giustinia and Shay sit at a cafe when they see Harena, the 18-year-old illegitimate child of an Italian herion addict who comes from a noble Roman family. When she was a toddler, her father, Leandro, had left her in Madagascar to return to to Italy. He soon cut off contact with her. Harena, a young beauty, often speaks about her father and her noble lineage, and rumors about her are widespread on the island. Giustinia expresses interest in Harena, so Shay begins to tell her about the girl's family history. Giustinia interrupts and says she knows Harena's father, Leandro, having seen him at several family weddings. Guistinia even has a distant family connection with him—one of Leandro's sisters is married to a cousin of Giustinia's husband. Giustinia suggests that she and Shay meet Harena. When Shay and Giustinia sit down with Harena, Gisutinia explains her connection to Leandro, after which Harena offers a detail of her story previously unknown to Shay—that she once tried to visit her father in Italy, but he turned her away. After the two women meet Harena, a rumor begins spreading on the island that Giustinia is Harena's Italian grandmother, who had come to take her back to Italy or support her financially. However, Giustinia's visit ends without her seeing the girl again. After she leaves, Shay is visited by a boy who looks remarkably similar to Harena. He claims that he is another one of Leandro's illegitimate children and he heard that Leandro and his mother had come to Shay's villa. Shay sees that the young man has been mislead by the rumors spreading on the island and feels guilty that he travelled so far for no reason. She gives him some money and turns him away. After the season on Anjavavy Island ends, Shay returns to Milan and sees Giustinia again. Giustinia reveals that while she was in Italy she looked into Leandro and found out he died a year ago, from unknown causes, and that his family has been tight-lipped about his death. Both Shay and Giustinia are distressed that they can't help the illegitimate children. In the following years, both women return to Madagascar, now with children of their own. Looking at the mixed race children around the island and their own, they muse that the children are indistinguishable, and it is only by chance that their children were born into privilege and fortune, while the other children and Leandro's children did not share the same fortunate circumstances.