The novel by German film director Werner Herzog is based on the amazing story of Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda, who defended the small island of Lubang in the Philippines for 29 years after the end of World War II. At the end of 1944, when Japanese troops were preparing to retreat, Lieutenant Onoda received orders: to hold the island until the return of the imperial army. For almost thirty years, Onoda continued to fight a fictional war, at once surreal and tragic, first with other soldiers and then alone, becoming a character in a novel of his own composition. Herzog recounts Onoda's years of absurd but epic struggle in an inimitable hypnotic style - documentary, poetic and somewhat dreamlike - which will be instantly recognizable to fans of his films.