Set in Haiti under the rule of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his secret police, the Tontons Macoutes, the novel explores political repression and terrorism through the figure of an English hotel owner, Brown.

The story begins as three men, Brown, Smith, an "innocent" American; and Major H. O. Jones, a confidence man; meet on a ship bound for Haiti.

Complications include Brown's friendship with a rebel leader, hotel guests who are politically active, and an affair with Martha Pineda, the wife of a South American ambassador.

[1] The novel was adapted as a feature film of the same name, released in 1967 and starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Alec Guinness, Peter Ustinov, James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson, Paul Ford and Lillian Gish.

The main characters travel to Haiti on the Medea, a Dutch ship serving the capital Port-au-Prince and the Dominican Republic.

The New York Times noted that Greene writes about dark places, and this novel explores Haiti under Duvalier and his paramilitary, known as the Tontons Macoutes.

He can die- he can succeed in that- and he dies heroically, covering the retreat of the rest, since his flat feet would only delay the whole party if he were to try to escape with his men.

[2] In The New York Review of Books, Sybille Bedford described this tenth novel by Greene as "a work of strength and freshness, and in its core there lies the steel coil of compulsion.

It described Greene as "A liar, a cretin, a stool-pigeon... unbalanced, sadistic, perverted... a perfect ignoramus... lying to his heart's content... the shame of proud and noble England... a spy... a drug addict... a torturer."