Appointed inspector of schools in Bangui after doing his studies in France, Gonaba suddenly decides to give it all up to go live deep in the equatorial forest, the home of the Babinga pygmies. His idea is to help them win their freedom from the "big men" and their intolerable racism, 40 years after the country's independence. After a long ordeal, an immutable truth: happiness is the most relative thing in the world.