Set in Jamaica during the 1930's, Wide Sargasso Sea is the story of Antoinette Bertha Cosway, a beautiful Creole heiress living on a decaying plantation. Her father had many children by Negro women. She can be accepted neither by the Negro community nor by the representatives of the colonial center. As a white Creole she is nothing. The ratial hate she goes through and the suspicion that she is mentally imbalanced brings about her down fall. .
Antoinette grows from a frightened, unwanted child, to a hated, unwanted wife. Although the Creole has inherited some aspects from both cultures, but were rejected by both societies. The English women did not trust Antoinette or her mother. According to Annette, Antoinette's beautiful mother, a lot of visitors use to come. However, she lost them wither her English husband's death. Negro's called Antoinette "white cockroach" and hated her deeply. From childhood, Antoinette has known little of happiness. Lost, lonely, shunned by her insane mother, hated by her stepfather, and friendless at her convent school. .
Antoinette's only joy came from the tropical island she inhabits and the native people who nurse her from birth. When Antoinette came of age she was married to a strange English man who needs her for her fortune. After Antoinette's father and brother's death, and her mother who became insane, this was the only way she figured to save herself. Being the second son Antoinette's husband (whose name is not mentioned) does not obtain the right to his family wealth and thus considers marrying Antoinette. .
Antoinette falls wildly in love with her husband who never returns her feelings. Her husband despises Jamaica and wants to return to England. His distrust of her and hatred towards the home and people Antoinette loves soon results in an insurmountable barrier between them. Even when it is obvious to outsiders that the marriage is doomed, Antoinette does not give up.