Shortly after the United States enters World War I in 1917, a Broadway actress agrees to let a naive soldier court her in order to impress his friends, but a real romance soon begins.
Set in Abidjan’s MACA prison, the aging Black Beard, in attempt to maintain control over his fellow inmates, resorts to a “story” ritual, wherein one prisoner is forced, Scheherazade-style, to tell stories for an entire night. The young pickpocket he chooses relays the haunting tale of the Zama King.