In 1914, just after of Franz Ferdinand's assassination that eventually caused World War I, a steamship approaches a desolate island on the edge of the Antarctic Circle, where a young nameless man is poised to take the post of weather observer, to live in solitude at the end of the earth along an entire year until the arrival of his replacement, where the next twelve months his entire world will consist of a deserted cabin, trees, rocks, silence and the surrounding sea. Meeting Gruner, island's lighthouse keeper, and realizing that the previous weather observer died by typhus time ago, nameless man discover the first night on the cabin where he lives that a strange beings close the cabin. Surviving until the next day, nameless man meets again Gruner, who explains him that a race of sea humanoids live close the island, fearing all kind of light and approaching out the sea in the night to kill them. Calling himself "Friend", nameless man and Gruner spend the night waiting for the ...