The play opens in a white audience room inside emperor Brutus Jones’s palace, located in an unnamed Caribbean island. The palace overlooks distant hills with palm tree groves. The room has minimal furniture and features a large, eye-catching scarlet throne at the center.

The Old Native Woman enters the room and moves quietly, seemingly fearful of being discovered. Meanwhile, Henry Smithers, a white trader, observes the woman from afar. Suspecting that she is stealing, Smithers confronts her, grabbing the woman by the shoulder. The woman denies any wrongdoing, sinking to the ground in a supplicating manner. Smithers, sensing something is amiss, questions her about the absence of other servants and threatens her with a whip. She reveals that Jones is asleep in the palace and that the servants fled to the hills, likely planning a revolt. Smithers is elated upon hearing the news. As he whistles to alert Jones, the woman escapes.

Jones, a Black man clad in a splendid uniform, awakens and shouts in anger, demanding to know who dared to disturb him. When he realizes it’s Smithers, he attempts to hide his contempt for the trader and greets him suavely.