This is a novel about migration. However, it is also about slavery, indentureship, colonialism, and neo-colonialism. The issues are addressed by tracking the life experiences of its main character, Knolly Roone. At the same time, the work skillfully manages an underlying plot of romantic intrigue that develops out of a pledge Roone makes to his mother to get the family out of their rough inner-city neighborhood. Two major themes drive the underlying plot: spousal abuse and unrequited love. Knolly makes a commitment to his mother to get her out of the Backbridge neighborhood. The foundation of that pledge rests on a relationship that he develops with a young woman with whom he has a relationship that he believes to be strictly platonic. As it turns out, he is, instead, haunted by the ghosts of a friendship defined by the woman's complex past and her sense of unrequited love.
The story begins with an often hilarious, yet profound description of life in Backbridge, a fictional community near Port-Of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The latter is a country characterized by its rich ethnic, cultural, and geographic/geological diversity. Backbridge is both a microcosm and an incubator of the country's diversity and heritage. Its population consists primarily of the descendants of ex-slaves who migrated to the community from the Grenadines, along with a smattering of Asian descendants of post-slavery indentured workers.
The novel highlights Backbridge's pivotal role in the development of the country's creative arts and culture, including the Steelband, Calypso and Carnival. While discussing the twin islands' socio-political history, the work sheds some light on their post-slavery relationship with the United States of America. In this regard, it explores the country's fascination with President John F. Kennedy. It also addresses American involvement in the region via the Cuban missile crisis, and the presence of the US Naval Base, located at Chaguaramas, in Trinidad's Northwest peninsula.
When Roone migrates to Canada, the narrative shifts to a series of coffee-shop/dinner-table conversations with some exciting new friends he encounters. These engaging and insightful discussions are dictated by Knolly's geographic movements. For example, the reader is taken into an immigrant church in Toronto, and when Roone relocates to Montreal, there are invaluable lessons on Québec's political and cultural affairs, including its drive towards post-ecclesiastical secularism. Knolly and his Québécoise girlfriend, Chantal, even compare notes on Québec's Quiet Revolution of the 1960's with Trinidad's own 1970 February Uprising.
As Roone goes to work in Northern Québec, there are some remarkable discussions hosted by him and his friend Matthew, an Indigenous Cree with a sharp wit and dry but effective sense of humor. They assertively address challenging questions like how Indigenous Peoples and Black Canadians' view each other and their roles in the larger North American context. That leads to a discussion on the issue of the so-called "American Indian Wars" of 1609-1924, and the role of the Black "Buffalo Soldiers" in those conflicts.
The underlying plot unexpectedly ends with a dramatic surprise in the picturesque Gaspé Peninsula of eastern Québec.