En septembre 1956, à la Sorbonne, s'est tenu trois jours durant le premier Congrès des écrivains et artistes noirs. Aimé Césaire, Alioune Diop, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Richard Wright ou Frantz Fanon y ont notamment côtoyé Jean-Paul Sartre, Claude Lévi-Strauss, René Depestre, Édouard Glissant ou James Baldwin. Le réalisateur américain Bob Swaim revient sur les circonstances de la tenue de ce colloque et explique pourquoi les grandes puissances de l'époque ont tout fait pour le perturber, en dénigrer les conclusions et en étouffer la portée.

Dr. Lauren Slaughter, a research fellow at the Arab-Anglo Institute in London is utterly frustrated by her job. To supplement her income, she starts moonlighting at the Jasmine Escort Service, where she has more control over men and money than she does at the office. On one of her 'dates', Lauren meets the politician Lord Bulbeck who is trying to mediate a peace accord between the Arabs and Israelis. Bulbeck falls in love with his escort, and unwittingly, Lauren becomes a pawn in some very dirty politics.

A recently orphaned heiress meets a young racing yacht captain on Long Island. He shows interest in her and, being heiress to $200,000,000, love may not be the reason.