A midden, or dumping ground is encountered at the heart of an island that contains all the waste materials of all civilizations that have existed on earth. The islanders have long drunk from the midden waters and the expelled chaos and disorders of past civilizations have deranged their speech, their perception, and their habits. These are recorded by two visitors to the island. One escapes and is found, barely living, washed up on the shore of a small fishing hamlet. He is tended to by a doctor from inland who relays the story told by the survivor.
The novel engages with the basic argument of Purity and Danger in which Mary Douglas argues that all civilizations require dirt, they rely upon the differences they establish between purity and filth to establish their own internal orders, and mark themselves off from a chaotic and uncontrollable universe.
