July 18, 1816: Off the west coast of Africa, the captain of the Argus discovers a raft approximately twenty meters long. What he sees on it makes his blood run cold: hollow eyes, parched lips, hair stiff with salt, burned skin covered in wounds and blisters. The emaciated, naked figures are the last 15 of originally 147 people who survived two weeks at sea after the sinking of the frigate Medusa. Since there were too few places in the lifeboats, they were simply abandoned. This historically documented story serves as the backdrop for Franzobel's epochal novel, which aims at the core of humanity. What is the price of survival?.