Fifteen-year-old Amadou and his beloved little brother Seydou left home to find work, but they did not expect to become forced laborers on an Ivory Coast cacao plantation. Day by day they gather cacao pods, hoping to earn enough money to buy their freedom, but their resolve is waning. Then one day Khadija arrives, the first girl they have seen in the camp, a wild girl whose attempts to escape rekindle Amadou's own fire for freedom.