Rufus Emekuku is a university professor of African and African Diaspora studies. While interacting with his students, he senses disunity among the African and African-American students on campus, which he traces back to the damage inflicted by slavery and colonialism. He believes that these are the sources of the disconnection of Africans in the Diaspora from Africans on the continent. What he doesn't know, however, is that he is observing a problem that he was born to solve. Reuniting Africans on the continent and Africans in the Diaspora through marriage is his destiny. But first, Rufus must identify areas of inconsistencies and try to make sense of them. In the process of identifying these areas, he discovers that in black people as a whole, there is a deep-seated hatred of themselves and of one another, and this hatred of self is more psychological than anything else. It is a sort of mental imprisonment that Rufus decides to confront, and he eventually triumphs. While he wrestles with the situation, and following his assignment to his students on the topic, one of his students kills another with a gun as the two are discussing the issue on campus. When the motive of the killing is made public, the professor is accused of inciting violence on campus.