Antoinette Cosway recalls her youth in 1840s Jamaica, growing up with her French mother, Annette, and younger brother Pierre. Following the abolition of slavery on the island and the financial collapse of the family plantation, Antoinette’s English father drinks himself to death, and her mother marries another Englishman named Paul Mason. Though the Jamaican plantation workers harbor hostility toward Antoinette’s family, their anger is kept at bay by her nurse, Christophene, who is widely feared because of her skills in black magic. However, as Mason and his brother Richard agitate the workers with criticism and threats, the Jamaicans retaliate by setting fire to the house. Everyone in the family survives except Pierre, whose death drives his mother to insanity. Subsequently, Mason provides for the family financially but retreats to England, leaving Antoinette with only her Aunt Cora to care for her. Several years later, Antoinette, who has been living at a convent, receives a visit from Richard Mason, who tells her that Paul has died and has left the properties in Jamaica to her, provided that she marry. The Masons have already arranged a match with a family in England, and Edward Rochester, a second son whose older brother is set to inherit his family’s property, comes to Jamaica. Despite Aunt Cora’s reservations as to how little they know about Edward, he and Antoinette marry and move into the Cosways’ summer house in the mountains, where the newlyweds and a few servants, including Christophene, attempt to maintain some European upper-class customs. Though they have very different backgrounds, Antoinette and Edward get along and experience particular satisfaction in their sexual relationship. One night, Antoinette has a dream: as a child, she pays a visit to her increasingly unstable mother, who at first hugs her but pushes her violently away. When she wakes, Antoinette seeks comfort from Christophene instead of Edward, which he discovers. Later, Edward receives a letter from Daniel Cosway, a man who claims to be Antoinette’s half-brother, purporting to tell the true story of Antoinette’s family, including the fact that her mother is still alive and insane, not dead as Antoinette had told him. Daniel hints that Antoinette may also go mad one day, and Edward wonders whether his father and brother knowingly married him into an unstable family. That night, he confronts Antoinette, asking her to tell him what became of her mother. As Antoinette repeats her original story that her mother died soon after the fire, Edward recalls Daniel’s words in the letter, “She will look you in the eye and tell you lies.” Later that night, Edward has a nightmare about being entangled in the masses of seaweed he saw at the edge of the Sargasso Sea on his journey from England. When he wakes, he notices Antoinette sleeping restlessly. Edward becomes aroused and commences intercourse without waking her, persisting after she wakes and says, “Not too hard.” Afterward, he is horrified at himself and apologizes, but she assures him that she is fine. The next day, without telling Antoinette his plans, Edward rides to Spanish Town to ask Richard Mason what happened to Antoinette’s mother. When Richard replies that she died shortly after the fire that killed Antoinette’s brother, Edward is shocked to learn of Pierre’s existence. After attending a staid ball with the Europeans in Spanish Town, Edward returns home the next day to find Antoinette drunk and furious with him for disappearing. Christophene announces that she plans to leave so as not to come between husband and wife. Before going, she chides the servant Amelie for making eyes at Edward. Later, Edward meets in person with Daniel Cosway, who claims that Pierre was born crazy and Antoinette’s mother now lives on a hill and sleeps with men indiscriminately. When Daniel demands five hundred pounds, Edward storms away. Meanwhile, convinced that she has lost Edward’s love forever, Antoinette goes to Christophene’s hut and begs her for a love potion. Christophene hesitates but agrees, and that evening, Antoinette and Edward attempt to reconcile. She tells him the truth about her mother and brother, but he reproaches her for lying to him in the past. Antoinette experiences a lucid memory from childhood, seeing a Jamaican man hand her disheveled mother a drink and then embrace and kiss her. Edward asks where Antoinette went earlier in the day, and she replies that she visited Christophene, who advised her to leave him. Edward suggests that perhaps they should separate, but he softens when she approaches and kisses him. Antoinette slips Christophene’s potion into Edward’s drink, and though the drink makes him inebriated and confused, he joins her in bed and kisses her. After another nightmare about swimming through the Sargasso Sea, he wakes and runs to the balcony, yelling for Amelie to bring him water. She does so, remarking that she feels sorry for him. He looks at her angrily, but his mood quickly changes and they have sex against the wall, causing Antoinette to wake up and overhear them. The next day, Edward receives a letter from England telling him that his older brother has died, leaving Thornfield Hall, the family property, to him. Christophene chastises Edward for cheating on Antoinette and begs him to love his wife again. When he promises only to look after Antoinette, Christophene asks that he return to England alone, leaving Antoinette with enough money to live peacefully with her servants. Edward retorts that she will live with him forever. That night, he finds Antoinette lying on the bed and hints that they could make up, but she refuses his touch and hits him. Soon, Edward and Antoinette leave Jamaica on a ship bound for England. As her Aunt Cora says goodbye, Antoinette looks dully at her and fails to respond. Sometime later, during an English winter at Thornfield Hall, a housekeeper ascends to an attic room and tells another servant, “The master’s marrying our Jane Eyre,” suggesting that Edward plans to remarry. An unkempt Antoinette overhears and resolves that Edward has forgotten her. At night, she steals the keys to her room and sets fire to Thornfield, dancing atop the mansion as it burns.