Axel Heyst aims to drift through life in solitude, believing that he can avoid suffering by cutting himself off from humanity’s passions and delusions.

Then, living on a remote island in the Malay Archipelago, he resues a young English girl escaping from a man who is infatuated with her. As she, in turn, tries to save Heyst from isolation, their affair comes under threat from the brutal violence of outsiders.