Trevor D. Rhone

Ivanhoe Martin arrives in Kingston, Jamaica, looking for work and, after some initial struggles, lands a recording contract as a reggae singer. He records his first song, "The Harder They Come," but after a bitter dispute with a manipulative producer named Hilton, soon finds himself resorting to petty crime in order to pay the bills. He deals marijuana, kills some abusive cops and earns local folk hero status. Meanwhile, his record is topping the charts.

Kassa a free-wheelin rasta man, falls for a straight laced gospel singer Serena, when they both meet as they enter a music contest. Serena's father the pastor forbids her to see him and wants her to marry one of his church members. Meanwhile the record boss organizing the contest, tries to get Kassa's band to sign to his label on his terms not theirs. By using heavy tactics, he pushes the band to fight back.

At a Jamaican beach hotel, super-slick waiter and self-professed "stud" Ringo works the angles (and there are many) on the ever-presents knots of unsuspecting, trusting tourists. Hey, all's fair in love and business … especially when you're continuously on the hustle, like Ringo.

When Susan, a film producer from NYC, goes to Jamaica to shoot a shampoo commercial, she finds herself, through a series of unforeseen circumstances, drifting further and further away from the world she knows and into the life of the island, a strange alternative reality that turns many of her previously held assumptions upside down.

Jo, a Jamaican native, moves to Canada to help support her family. But she quickly learns that earning money and respect will be more difficult than she ever imagined.