The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.
— A Bend in the River, opening line
Set in an unnamed African country after independence, the book is narrated by Salim, an ethnically Indian Muslim and a shopkeeper in a small but growing city in the country's remote interior. Salim observes the rapid changes in Africa with an outsider's distance.
Salim grows up in the community of Indian traders on the east coast of Africa. Feeling insecure about his future in East Africa, he buys a business from Nazruddin in a town at "a bend in the river" in the heart of Africa. When he moves there he finds the town decrepit, a "ghost town", its former European suburb reclaimed by the bush, and many of its European vestiges ruined in a "rage" by the locals in response to their suppression and humiliation during colonial times. Old tribal distinctions have become important again. Salim trades in what people in the villages need: pencils and paper, pots and pans, other household utensils. Soon he is joined by an assistant, Metty, who comes from a family of house slaves that his family had maintained in the east. One of his steady customers is Zabeth, a "marchande" from a village and a magician too. Zabeth has a son, Ferdinand, by a man of another tribe, and asks Salim to help him get educated. Ferdinand attends the local lycée run by Father Huismans, a Belgian priest who collects African masks and is considered a "lover of Africa". Life in the town is slowly improving. Salim's decision to move there seems to be vindicated when he learns that the Indian community on the east coast is being persecuted, but he still does not feel secure. Mahesh, a fellow IndIan trader, says that the local Africans are "malins" (i.e. wicked), "because they lived with the knowledge of men as prey".[2] A rebellion breaks out and the Indian merchants live in fear. Soon white mercenaries appear and restore order. After peace has returned Father Huismans goes on a trip. He is killed by unknown assailants and nobody cares. Afterwards his collection of African masks is denounced as an affront to African religion. An American visitor pillages most of the masks and ships them home as "the richest products of the forest".[3]
The town now develops into a trading centre for the region. Government agencies spring up. European salesmen and visitors arrive. Salim's friends Mahesh and Shoba become successful with their new Bigburger franchise. The new army arrives, "poachers of ivory and thieves of gold".[4] Portraits of the President, "the Big Man", are displayed everywhere. A new section of town is built, the "State Domain", to showcase the President's vision of a new Africa. Yet buildings are shoddy, the tractors at the agricultural centre never get put to work, and much of the Domain falls quickly into disrepair. Salim calls it a "hoax". The Domain is soon converted into a university and conference centre.
Salim is visited by Indar, who grew up with him on the east coast, then went to England to study and now has become a lecturer at the new institution. He takes Salim to a party in the Domain to meet Yvette and Raymond, an expatriate European couple. Raymond had been the advisor and mentor of the President. Although charismatic and admired, he finds himself outside the centre of power, his influence with the President seemingly in eclipse. Loyal to the President, he continues to write for him, hoping to be recalled to the capital.
Salim, whose experience with women has been limited to prostitutes, is intrigued by Yvette, Raymond's much younger wife. Salim and Yvette start an adulterous affair right under Raymond's eyes. But the affair ends abruptly when Salim, seized by sudden jealousy, beats her badly and sends her away.
Raymond's attempt to please the Big Man by editing a collection of his speeches is not successful. Instead the President publishes "a very small, brief book of thoughts, Maximes, two or three thoughts to each page, each thought about four or five lines long".[5] Like others, Salim is forced to buy copies of the book for distribution. The local youth group displeases the President and is denounced in one of his propaganda speeches. As a result, unrest grows, corruption and extortion become more prevalent, and a "Liberation Army" forms underground. They reject the President, his cult of the black Madonna (modeled on the President's mother), and his vision of Africa, calling to return to the "truthful laws" of the ancestors.
Salim looks for a way out. He travels to London, where he meets Nazruddin. Nazruddin sold his business to Salim, moved to Uganda, left it because of persecution, moved then to Canada, left it because of its capitalistic rapaciousness, and finally landed in London, where he became a landlord. He bemoans the lack of security for honest businessmen: there is no safe place. Salim becomes engaged to Nazruddin's daughter, but soon returns to his place in Africa. Upon arrival he learns that his business has been expropriated under the President's new programme of "radicalization" and transferred to a local. Théotime, a "state trustee", is ignorant and lazy, and retains Salim as manager and chauffeur. Salim recognises that all is lost. He has hidden some ivory on his property, but, betrayed by Metty, is found out and put in jail. He is presented to the commissioner, Ferdinand, who has moved up in the administration after receiving training in the capital. Ferdinand tells him that there is no safety, no hope, and that everybody is in fear of his life: "We’re all going to hell, and every man knows this in his bones. We’re being killed. Nothing has any meaning."[6] He sets Salim free and tells him to leave the country. Salim takes the last steamer before the President arrives. During the night there is a battle on the ship, as rebels try to hijack it. The attack is repelled, but the attached barge, full of Africans, is snapped loose and drifts down the river.
