It is based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Joseph Zobel of the same title (alternatively translated as Black Shack Alley; literally "Street of the Houses of Negroes").

Many of the people around him, including his grandmother, Ma'Tine, with whom he lives, work in the sugar cane fields where they are browbeaten and badly paid by the white boss.

In order to earn his lunch, José gets tricked into doing housework for a woman who lives near school, leading to him being repeatedly late for class.

His grandmother accompanies him to the capital, where she works as a laundrywoman for rich white households to pay the remainder of the school fees and their living costs.

When he writes an essay on the lives of poor blacks, he is accused of plagiarism, so he runs away from school, back to his small shack in the city.

The professor goes to his house and tells José that he was wrongly accused, offering an apology and a full scholarship to the school and stipend monies.