Storyline At a Baptist prayer meeting, the preacher leads a prayer for Brutus
Jones, who is leaving to become a railway porter. Jones joins the
congregation in a spiritual. Once on the train, Jeff, a porter, shows
Jones the ropes. Jones secretly takes up with Jeff's girl, Undine. He
makes some money in a deal with a rich businessman on the train. Jones
proves to be a cunning manipulator and a good liar. In a crap game,
Jones stabs Jeff over a pair of loaded dice. Now doing hard labour,
Jones kills a white prison guard and escapes. Shovelling coal on a ship
in the Caribbean, Jones swims to an island. He is brought before the
island's ruler, where Smithers, a crooked white trader, buys his
freedom. Jones schemes his way into a partnership in Smithers' business,
then finally control of the entire island through a touch of
witchcraft, or so it seems. Brutus declares himself to be The Emperor
Jones... Smithers reports on the unrest that Jones' rule is causing.