French engineer d'Arrast is driven by a local chauffeur, Socrates, to a town in Iguape, Brazil, where he is to construct a sea-wall to prevent the lower quarters from flooding.
He is shown around a hut and offered rum by the daughter of the house as part of his visit, although he feels the hostility of the local people towards him and his guides.
As dusk falls, d’Arrast follows the sailor and his brother to a hut near the forest, containing a statue or idol of a horned god, where men and women are dancing.
However, he suddenly decides to change his route and carry his burden, not to the church, but downtown to the sailor’s own hut, where he flings it into the centre of the room.
Later, he agrees to witness the pre-Christian (though Camus did not believe in culture developing linearly to a Christian standard), African-rooted rituals of the poor people who live in the worst of conditions in the town.
On some level, he comes to understand that when the cook chooses to dance the night away, that the pull of the old ways and traditions are stronger to him and his people than the newer religion.