This book is about a man who, thanks to an incredible coincidence of circumstances, acquired ownership of a tropical island in the Pacific Ocean. Here the hero, along with other outcasts like him, gained sudden and complete freedom. For the first time, they were able to live the way they wanted, although from the outside such a life sometimes seems absurd and funny. It turned out that there are powerful forces in the world that cannot come to terms with the abandonment of people and islands. But among the people of the bottom, the “insoluble human sediment,” pride is unexpectedly revealed. A handful of islanders have to defend their right to solitude.