Set against the lush backdrop of an emrald islet, a tale of the tumult which is caused in a small community when the inbred denizens discover they have a young American cousin who is talented, handsome and black. When Chad Egan-Washington shows up on the Irish island of Inis Dara to scatter his mother's ashes on her native land, his misanthropic uncle Tony Egan, a farmer, is the first to be shocked. Having broken off contact with his sister 20 years back after a spat, Tony had no idea she had married a black New Yorker or that she ran a grocery in Hell's kitchen. Chad, and extremely polite young man with dreadlocks and a talent for sketching, is soon accepted as an oddity. He doesn't take to farm chores much, but the girls in town are wild about his exotic looks and American accent. Soon, however, tension mounts in all arenas of his life, as Chad's relationship grows with the daughter of a man with whom his mother was involved--a rival of his uncle's.