In 1920s, a group of expatriate black seamen, most of them American, are living in the Vieux Port section of Marseilles. Often searching for work or unemployed, they sometimes travel to other locations in the South of France. Much of their time is spent enjoying “the joy stuff of life”—music, romance, and sex—in or around the city’s bars, restaurants, and clubs. Banjo is the nickname of Lincoln Agrippa Daily, who has a band, which the philosophically inclined Ray, newly arrived from Harlem, joins. Other members who converge in the city include Malty, Ginger, Dengel, and Bugsy. The loosely plotted novel includes their individual stories as well as the backdrop of the changing racial composition of the port and, particularly, of the ships’ crews, which are changing to predominantly white. The Americans also detect anti-foreign sentiment.

Leaving Marseilles, Banjo heads for Monte Carlo, while Ray and Malty go to the wine country, and still others go north to work in a factory. Although Ginger and Dengel stay, hoping to work from the docks, the “spell” they felt has been broken. The others return changed, especially Banjo, whose instrument has been stolen and whose disposition has turned melancholy. Illness, police persecution, and even Bugsy’s death plague their group. Banjo decides to crew on a ship headed for the Caribbean, but at the last minute, he skips out, apparently committed to pursuing his music while traveling around France.