The young revolutionary Nelson Mandela is arrested, and it is the task of censor James Gregory to watch him. He has long since moved to South Africa with the family for his work in the prison of Robben Island, and slowly he clashes with the politics and racist culture of his countrymen and the people of his own race. Gregory begins to express hatred for South African apartheid. In time, Gregory challenges his superiors, and seeks to improve Mandela's life until he is released from prison after twenty-seven years of imprisonment, and is elected president of South Africa.