After a pirate attack on his sailboat and the death of his shipmates, Mathew Prendel, a doctor, is shipwrecked on an almost entirely uninhabited island. The only person who lives there is Nelson Souza, the pirate responsible for the deaths of his friends and for his being shipwrecked. Mathew thought he had killed him in his escape and now, paradoxically, the pirate saves his life. This is the start of a difficult coexistence marked by Souza's dominance and his secrets that will end with Souza's death and Mathew's return to civilization.Years later on his deathbed, Mathew asks his lover Phoebe Westore, Ph. D. in literature, to write up his life story in a letter and send it to the Souza family.