A male child is born into the family of a traditionalist in the backwoods of Umunta. The third child of the family, first son of his father and first and only child of his mother is kidnapped and whisked off to a notorious slave baron a day's journey away from home. Intervention by the baron's wife borne out of reminiscences of her earlier lost sons saves the young victim from the jaws of slavery and possible death. Returned to his pagan parents the child grows up and satisfies the simple test of maturity for enrolment into school in a society where birth certificates and registry of births...