Five men and two women become victims of a shipwreck and find themselves on an uninhabited island populated by blind birds and giant lizards. Deprived of water, food, and hope for rescue, the characters are forced to confront not only impending death but also their own pasts, from which they tried to escape. Now, these pasts haunt them in dreams and hallucinations, almost indistinguishable from reality.

As he traces the path each of them chooses when faced with death and illuminates the darkest corners of their souls, Stig Dagerman (1923–1954) explores the nature of guilt, fear, and loneliness. Written in just two weeks during the summer of 1946, the novel became a manifesto of Swedish modernism and turned the author into a cult figure.

"This book cannot be read without questioning one's own beliefs and views." — Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio