En Guadeloupe, les toussotements de la Soufrière font partie du quotidien des habitants de la Basse-Terre. Mais en ce mémorable mois de juillet 1976, les explosions s’intensifient, les cendres recouvrent impitoyablement la végétation et beaucoup se résignent à partir en Grande-Terre. Au cœur de cette saison brûlante, les bourgs se vident et les destins se jouent. De l’autre côté de l’isthme, chez les Bévaro, l’heure est aux retrouvailles : dans la case d’Elias, le patriarche, s’agglutinent la famille de son fils venue de métropole et une flopée de cousins déplacés. Eucate, en Basse-Terre, n’a plus que sa petite-fille. Elle a autrefois érigé sa case sur les pentes du volcan pour fuir les vilénies de son patron monsieur Vincent et elle est bien décidée à y rester. Même si elle devait être la dernière, seule avec ses souvenirs d’un passé doux-amer.

There are many Bévaro’s in Guadeloupe: Elias is the eldest of fourteen brothers and sisters. As head of the clan, he has built a modest hut on Grande Terre and planted three coconut trees nearby, one for each of his children. Daniel, his youngest, has settled on the other side of the Atlantic, in mainland France, where he married a white woman. When he returns to the West Indies with his wife and children seventeen years later in 1976, the long-dormant volcano La Soufrière begins to cough. Is it about to erupt? The opinions of volcanologists differ. Those who live nearby question whether to stay or to flee? The Bévaro’s from Basse-Terre don’t hesitate, they take refuge on the other side of the isthmus, in Grande Terre, and huddle into Elias’s somewhat extendable hut. Eucate is determined to remain on the volcanic slopes, come what may. With her granddaughter Anastasie, she awaits, unperturbed, for fate’s final decision. In the intensifying heat, she remembers the time when the banks of La Soufrière was a refuge, where she came to forget about the misdeeds of master Vincent, the Béké whose plantations she worked on. Before her daughter Esperance had left for mainland France. And when Elias’s son, Ange, would pay her mysterious visits in his gleaming DS car. As these lowlands hopelessly empty, she soon becomes the only one left on the volcanic slopes.