Girard sets out to explain why the richest colony of the eighteenth-century Caribbean became the poorest country in the Americas, and settles on three causes.

The first is racial conflict, traced from the disappearance of the indigenous population through slavery and a war of independence in which both sides contemplated extermination, and onward into the rivalry between a small lighter-skinned minority and the Black majority, the colour politics of leaders who claim authenticity by it, and Haiti's dealings with France, the United States and its neighbour to the east.

The second is a ruling class he describes as predatory and self-enriching, leaving roads, schools and clinics to foreign aid and NGOs while the security forces prey on citizens.

The third, which he treats as genuinely contested, is foreign responsibility. Girard rejects the argument from colonial legacy, noting that other sugar colonies were exploited comparably and fared differently.