The actions of the work take place  on a plantation in Tahiti, where about five hundred Chinese laborers work, who are called by their French overseers “Chinagos.” A murder has been committed on this plantation, and the French have rounded up five suspects, none of whom are guilty. The story’s protagonist, named Ah Cho, on top of the fact that he and his fellow accused men know who really did commit the murder, wonders how it is possible to accuse five men of murder when the victim was stabbed only two times.