In Ceylon, colonized by the British, an Indian Tamil woman describes the events that follow the departure of the British from the plantations. She imagines the possibility of a new world as the Indians reclaim their land. However, the reality that follows shows how the British values persist and are upheld by ethnic differences between the Indians on the plantation.

After an explosion kills several of his workers, the manager of a tin mine in French Indochina must confront the poor working conditions and growing ethnic resentment that his enterprise has created.