A Free Man of Color

New Orleans 1833 Mardi Gras. While Creole Ben January plays piano, Angelique Crozat, colored mistress vain for whiteness, is fatally strangled. Authorities are reluctant to inquire. Whites, even policeman Abishag Shaw, blame Ben, fathered by black. Ben seeks killer from seamy haunts of riverboaters into huts of voodoo-worshiping slaves.