The movie is set on Falconhurst, a run-down plantation owned by widower Warren Maxwell and his son Hammond. Hammond's Mandingo slave Ganymede, or Mede is trained to fight other slaves. Hammond neglects his wife Blanche whom he rejects on their wedding night after discovering she was not a virgin. Hammond instead rapes his slave Ellen while Blanche forces Mede to lay with her. These various, conflicting infidelities all eventually come together causing the movie to end tragically with the deaths of most of the main characters.