Drum, Ken Norton as Drum, is born to a white prostitute, who raises him with her black lesbian lover. He grows up to be a fighter and is repeatedly forced to bare-knuckle-box other slaves to the brink of death for the entertainment of the owners, among them a gay Frenchman named Bernard DeMarigny, John Colicos as Bernard DeMarigny. DeMarigny wants to sleep with Drum, but Drum rejects him, and DeMarigny vows revenge.
Drum and his friend Blaise are eventually sold to plantation owner Hammond Maxwell, Warren Oates as Hammond Maxwell, and are taken to his plantation to work. Regine, Pam Grier as Regine, is also purchased by Maxwell for his own personal desires as a bedwench.
Upon arrival, Regine is set up in the bedroom above Hammond. Augusta Chauvet, Fiona Lewis as Augusta Chauvet, Maxwell’s fiancée, is openly jealous and has her own plans for Regine. Maxwell’s daughter Sophie Maxwell, Cheryl Smith as Sophie Maxwell, wants to sleep with Drum, but also tries with Blaise. After being rebuffed, Sophie tells her father that Blaise has raped her. In response, Blaise is placed in chains and Maxwell decides that he must be castrated for the alleged crime. Sophie is sent off to boarding school after being caught sharing a moment with Blaise, while he remains chained.
A dinner party is arranged to celebrate the engagement of Maxwell and Chauvet, and Bernard DeMarigny is invited. The guests discuss the grim topic of castration as a supposed solution for slave discipline. While the party unfolds, Drum makes a bold move, freeing Blaise from his chains, and a revolt among the enslaved people begins to unfold. An understanding is reached not to shoot Blaise, but the moment Drum tries to deescalate the situation, DeMarigny shoots Blaise. Drum then confronts DeMarigny, attacking him with a brutal act to send a message to the others: he rips DeMarigny’s privates away. Drum orders the slaves to take the house, and the revolt erupts into a chaotic clash that costs many lives on both sides. In the end, Maxwell and Chauvet are saved by Drum, and Maxwell tells Drum that he must run, or else face capture and a possible kill. Chauvet tries to intervene, suggesting that Maxwell should tell the slavers Drum was loyal; Maxwell, however, insists that Drum must be killed. The final image shows Drum fleeing the plantation, a fugitive moving through the night.
