Mohammed is the commander of a Moroccan cavalry fort in the Moroccan-occupied Songhai Empire, near Timbuktu, in the early 17^th century. He loves his wife and family life but is called on to escort a huge caravan across the Sahara to the Moroccan capital of Marrakesh. Upon arriving in Marrakesh, he meets distant relatives and plans to return to his family during the next travel season. His plans are upset when the sultan orders him to take horses to a Moroccan port and escort them to a Dutch trading port in the south to trade for African slaves. This task is completed, and he sails back toward the Moroccan coast, hoping to catch the last caravan bound for Timbuktu.

               His ship is captured by a Dutch West India Company’s ship, and he and the slaves he is transporting are confiscated. He is taken across the Atlantic and sold to a Dutch planter in the Guianas. He works the sugar cane until it is discovered he has a way with horses. He becomes the groom for the master’s horses until a disagreement between the local Bush Negroes and the Dutch master results in an attack on the plantation.

               Mohammed’s master decides to take his family, favored slaves, and best horses to the Dutch island colonies in the Caribbean. Mohammed is tasked with caring for the horses on board the same Dutch ship that brought him across the Atlantic. A huge storm wrecks the ship off the Grenadines on a coral reef. The Dutch officers and crew flee in a boat, abandoning the slaves and cargo.

               Mohammed rescues two of the best horses and makes it to shore, along with many of the African slaves. They are stranded on Bequia Island, where Mohammed takes on a leadership role among the Africans. Caribs from St. Vincent come to salvage the wrecked ship and take the castaways to their island, where they are distributed among the villages.

               He must now adapt to life among the Caribs. He convinces the Carib chief, who becomes a friend, to bring the rescued horses from Bequia to St. Vincent, where he teaches the chief how to ride and becomes a big hit on the island.

               He joins in Carib raids on British islands, finds a new wife, and begins a new family, raised as Caribs, contributing to the blended ethnic group, the Black Caribs or Garifuna.