Novels by the Englishman Devir Stackpoole, distinguished by a wide range of plot and thematic range - from historical and social with intricate political intrigue, to romantic melodrama. The novel “Island of Seagulls” included in the collection “House Without a Key” belongs to the latter. Stackpoole is a subtle artist of the exotic: seas, deserts, secluded islands. The novelist masterfully describes the distant world of the Antilles, the bright colors of the tropics, and colonial life. Despite the adventurousness of the plot, the reality of the situation is emphasized by an actual event - a grandiose disaster that swallowed up the city of Saint-Pierre in 1902 as a result of the eruption of the Mont Pele volcano.

After a storm, two people find themselves on a secluded island, where there is no one except seagulls there is and, it seems, there is no hope of returning to people, but...