The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man tells the story of a biracial man living around the turn of the 20th century. After growing up in relative privilege, the Ex-Colored man becomes a ragtime piano player in New York. A rich white man notices him and befriends him, showing him off to other rich friends. Walking the line between black and white, the Ex-Colored Man finds that hiding his blackness and attempting to assimilate with the white world is his only means of avoiding violent racism and securing success.
The narrator in some ways reflects the trope of the Tragic mulatto, however, rather than suffering a catastrophic downfall as a result, the narrator's tragedy is much more subversive. The "Ex-colored Man" is compelled by fear, not only for himself but for his children's sake (so they can grow up "white"), to exist in degraded mediocrity, despite his apparent potential and lofty goals of advancing the African-American race. In this way, his boyhood friend, "Shiny," and his symbolic name, act as a foil for the narrator. The narrator has admired since childhood, his inability to "pass" forces him to accomplish, rather than merely aspire as the narrator does. At the end of the novel, Shiny has risen to refinement and prestige while embracing his racial heritage and contributing to the community, while the narrator is relegated to mediocrity and obscurity, unable to risk revealing his racial background.
A major shift in the plot occurs during a performance of "Faust" in Paris, when the narrator sees his wealthy white father and his legitimate family, including his biological half-sister. Throughout the novel, the narrator is locked in a continual cycle of bargaining. The final bargain is trading his aspirations and talents for mediocrity in order to "pass" and allow his children to pass, raising the question as to whether this is damnation, or continual striving.
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