Sabine Harwood

Sabine is a young wife when she arrives at Trinidad with her husband, George. She believes they will remain on the island for three years while George works off an employment contract. From the beginning, Sabine hates almost everything about Trinidad. She never plans to remain longer than the three years of George's contract and is miserable for most of her life. She never chooses to leave George, partly because of her love for him but partly because she depends on him.

During the early years in Trinidad, Sabine often rides her green bicycle around the area. She eventually learns that people are staring and talking about her, “The White Woman on the Green Bicycle.” This makes her uncomfortable, just one more thing she comes to hate about Trinidad.

Sabine and George have two children, Sebastian and Pascale. Sabine desperately wants to keep the children separate from...