A young black man brought up by a white father has acquired, like his master, the habit of keeping a journal. From then on, he recorded everything that happened in the middle of the settlers where, on the death of Father Blanc, he became the "boy" of the administrator of the colonies, the "commander" of the place. Nothing escapes him. He discovers two new worlds, fundamentally different, blinded by their prejudices, and brought to coexist: the Black Quarter, a poor village within the city, the Residence, an opulent city where white people live.
 Mixed with all, he reports the acts and conversations of his masters and their friends, the judgments of his domestic comrades, the dramas and passions of each other.