An ex-service man of the famous British West African Frontier Force comes back to devote himself as a benevolent worker. James Walker Gray realises he needs a youngman to help facilitate his work. This is how he comes in contact with Ekema or Otto Von Wilhem, a much respected Mokpe man, for help. Otto finds a suitable young fellow for the Grays. At first, Ikome is apprehensive of his new white family, but when it dawns on him that he can use his position beside the white man to his own advantage, he changes his name to Frederick Lugard (Lord). The villages around the Ekona plantations have never suffered like this. Tribal chiefs are blackmailed, white men are manipulated and many reputable men are thrown to disgrace. Some, like the considerable Otto Von Wilhelm, are imprisoned. Lugard skillfully keeps himself in the good books of the white men until the day he pulls out his gun, and all hell breaks loose.