In 1933, a young mixed-race Ceylonese, Vernon Prins, arrives in England to do postgraduate work at the London School of Economics. He becomes politically active and infiltrates the British Fascist Party. He is particularly troubled by the Party's overt antisemitism because one of his closest friends, Saul Maccabee, is Jewish. \tThe novel’s two main themes relate to social justice and human evolution. The title of the novel comes from a term the colonial Dutch used to describe mixed-race Ceylonese. But the term “half-caste” carries other connotations as well, about social status and identity. Vernon, whose father is Dutch and whose mother is Sinhalese, simultaneously inhabits two worlds and can see from both perspectives: the world of white privilege and the world of underprivileged color. It is his Sinhalese heritage that leads Vernon to infiltrate the Fascist Party, and he is able to do so because he looks white. \tAfter Vernon and Saul travel to Ceylon--which comprises Part 2 of the novel--Saul falls in love with Vernon’s sister Minnette. He also gets involved with a Ceylonese socialist party, but because the British government and the moneyed elite do not take kindly to his agitating, Governor Stubbs issues a deportation order against him. Saul defies the order and goes into hiding. An island-wide manhunt ensues, and the novel ends with Saul and Vernon together in the jungle, evading the police.