Crew, a black peasant, is missing. Maas Charlie, the white estate owner is dead. What killed him? The answers lie deep in the racial memory, they Echo in the Bone. The year is 1937. The country is Jamaica. Friends and family of Crew, finally convinced he is dead, gather for the traditional ritual held nine nights after a death in order to persuade the soul of the deceased that all is well and to send it away with cheers and rejoicing. During the ceremony the ritual impels the participants to re-enact their history as an oppressed people in order to find some meaning in madness.