Content Warning: These chapters contain instances of racism and the use of slurs.

Off the coast of Queen of France, a man jumps from the deck of the H.M.S. Konigsgaarten and makes for shore. As he swims, he is pulled under by currents and changes course, boarding a smaller boat. He hides on board and hopes the boat will make its way to shore. When he wakes in the morning, the boat is in deeper waters, and he discovers that the crew is all women. That night, he scavenges some food and gazes over the water to the lights of a different island, which is said to have blinded a ship of enslaved people when they saw it centuries before. 

On Isle des Chevaliers, nature is disturbed to build winter homes for wealthy vacationers, the most beautiful of which is L’Arbe de la Croix. The house is owned and inhabited by Valerian Street, a retired white man from Philadelphia who spends most of his time playing classical music for the plants in his greenhouse. His wife, Margaret, occasionally returns to Philadelphia, unhappy with life on the island, although she and their Black butler, Sydney, coordinate the household.