On his way home from work, Robert Maitland, a 35-year-old architect, veers off the road in his Jaguar, crashes through a guardrail, and is thrown onto a traffic island. When he regains consciousness, injured, he tries in vain to seek help and cross the road above the embankment amidst the rushing traffic. Trapped in the overgrown wasteland of a gigantic highway interchange, he must make do with the few resources available in his car. After overcoming shock and apathy, he begins the fight for his survival, starts to settle in, and explores his surroundings, until he suddenly realizes after some time that he is not alone in the zone. Ballard's contemporary version of Robinson Crusoe masterfully explores the grotesque abysses of modernity and creates a timeless allegory of human existence between technological monstrosity and archaic nature.