Armand Baptiste, a wealthy young Creole of color simply wants to love the woman of his choice, but his obsessive controlling mother, Lisette, will not hear of it. Bound by a generational code of color blending and intra-racial prejudice, she attempts to systematically control matters of the heart for both Armand and his older brother Sean. Beginning in the 1960s and encompassing several decades, the story explores a system of exclusion based on color, and the psychological fallout of making life choices based on external appearance. Raising light-skinned Creole sons during the advent of the black awareness movement of the a60s proves difficult for Lisette as she tries to prevent her sons from interacting with common Negroes. The drama unfolds when Armand, her youngest and favorite child, defies her wishes by following his heart, and falls for a very beautiful, mahogany-skinned girl by the name of Jennifer Brown.