Alloune, a widower recently retired from his job at the Slavery Museum on an island off Dakar, decides to travel to the United States to trace his ancestors, who were sold as slaves in the New World two centuries before. After visiting South Carolina, where he uncovers information about family members renamed “Robinson” by their owners, he travels to the “Little Senegal” community in Harlem to stay with a nephew, and makes further links to the Robinson descendents. Alloune’s encounters with African-American attitudes toward African residents in America and his efforts to understand the bitterness of his Americanized relations make for fascinating commentary on cultural identity.