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Joël and Régis are two half-brothers whose only connection is the father they hardly know. Joël is unemployed and blames his inability to find work on his skin colour and French racism. Régis, by contrast, denies he is black and is fully integrated into French society. The two brothers are summoned to the death-bed of their father in Antilles. The dying man places into their hands their inheritance, an ancient document which granted freedom to their slave ancestors. Not appreciating the symbolic importance of this document, the brothers destroy it. Witnessing this thoughtless act is a mysterious old aunt who has been watching the brothers since they arrived in Antilles. To punish them, she sends them back in time, to the era of slavery. Not long after their arrival in 1780, Joël and Régis are sold at a slave market. They must now set aside their differences and work together if they are ever to escape a slave's harsh life on the plantation and return to the 21st century...