In 1940 Nazi-occupied Paris, Sidney “Sid” Griffiths, the bass-playing narrator, describes his nighttime attempts to make a jazz recording at a nearby studio, along with bandmates Charles “Chip” Jones, who plays drums; Hieronymus “Hiero” Falk, who plays trumpet; and Bill Coleman, who also plays trumpet. A perfectionist, Hiero deliberately destroys each disc they record; however, Sid manages to preserve one disc without Hiero noticing. They return to the apartment of a woman named Delilah, where they’ve been staying, careful not to be caught breaking curfew.

The next morning, having drunk a lot of cheap French “rot,” Hiero makes a drunken decision to go looking for some milk to calm his stomach, over Sid and Chip’s objections. Feeling some concern for “the kid,” as Sid thinks of him, Sid decides to accompany Hiero instead of waiting for Delilah to take them later, as he usually did.

Sid pauses his narration to provide some context. As an American of mixed European and African ancestry, Sid is often assumed to be white. Hiero, on the other hand, is described as a German-born, dark-skinned Mischling, or person with one African and one German parent, viewed as inferior by the Nazi party.