Set in the exotic islands of the Malay Archipelago,Conrad's tale of betrayal and isolation has at its heart a celebration of loyalty and the sublime power of love.
When Axel Heyst, a loner, elopes with a young girl whom he barely knows, the jealousies and suspicions of the local community simmer like the volcano that overshadows them. Determined to prevent Heyst and Lena from enjoying whatever peace their ill-matched union might bring, Schomberg, a hotel keeper with his own designs on Lena, dispatches 'plain Mr Jones' and his two henchmen to the mysterious island of Samburan, charged with a mission that will leave treachery, murder and suicide in its wake ...