Annique Briquet leaves the smothering conservative South for the Harlem Renaissance only to flee again to France, where her mother's white family lives. Along the way, she rejects many men, undecided as to whether she should marry black or white. Dubbed an African American experience of Edith Wharton's 'House of Mirth', 'The Mulatto's Dilemma' delves into racial issues as deeply as it challenges the institution of marriage as a form of ownership of women.