[1] It deals with what Wells describes as "certain odd possibilities of the negro mind brought into abrupt contact with the crown of our civilisation" and the narration displays racist attitudes common among British society of the time, in addition to the overt thuggish racism of the character Holroyd.

Azuma-zi, a character of ill-defined but dark-skinned race, apparently of South-East Asian origin, arrives in London from the Straits Settlements on board a steamer where he was a stoker.

He is irreligious; he lectures Azuma-zi against religion, and suggests to him that the largest and most impressive of the three dynamos in the plant is more of a "Gord" than the one preached by missionaries.

Nevertheless, impressed by the swift death inflicted on Holroyd by the dynamo, Azuma-zi decides to make the scientific manager a sacrifice as well.

While Holroyd is depicted as a thuggish, unthinking bully who "liked a nigger [as an assistant] because he would stand kicking", the narration, although sympathetic to Azuma-zi, nevertheless describes him in terms that would be considered unacceptable in modern times.