For Marie-Ange, a young city girl who has come to live with her grandmother, arriving in the village of Fonds-des-Nègres is a shock. She sees only miserable peasants, a land that no longer produces and hunger that children dressed in rags are being torn apart...

Having to face the hostility of some villagers, she nevertheless finds her place, shares the life of the inhabitants, is initiated into voodoo rites thanks to the houngan, the old priest respectfully nicknamed papa , and who will devote to her an affection that perhaps conceals unspeakable designs. He reigns supreme over the village, castigating the peasants who complain of poverty, making them face their responsibility for the unreasonable deforestation and the erosion that followed, taking with it all the arable land.

When Marie-Ange meets Ti-Fa, Facius' son, and a romance blossoms between them, she must once again face the opprobrium of the villagers. The Facius have managed to preserve plantations and enjoy a fertile land, a source of jealousy and animosity. She then thinks of returning to the capital, even if she no longer has any family there.

Suddenly, a distressing threat will weigh on Fonds-des-Nègres. Marie-Ange, Ti-Facius and papa le houngan will then unite and try to bring the peasants out of their passivity and their individualism to form a common front.

With Fonds des Nègres , the author once again demonstrates his talent and modernity, moving away from novels depicting the Haitian peasantry, which too often tend towards a naïve realism.