Set entirely within the confines of a New York City subway car (although filmed in England), Dutchman stars Al Freeman, Jr. as Clay, a mild-mannered African-American man who catches the eye of Lula (Knight), a free-spirited white woman. As the ride progresses, so does the intensity of the banter which develops between the unlikely twosome, in which both racial and sexual taboos are challenged. Based on a play by LeRoi Jones (aka Amiri Baraka), the film follows a loose structure akin to many of the great American independent films of the 1960s.