The powerful story of desperate men and their dramatic struggle for life in the world's most brutal and infamous penal colony. There is Boulanger, the Jolly Rapist, Mirandola, the towering Italian killer, perverted Radisson, one-eyed Giroux, sadistic Sergeant Ducharme. Above all, there is Gendron, the brawling ex-legionnaire they call The American.
Hating their sadistic guards, angry at the fatal insanities of the prison, the men divide among themselves. When the Nazi war in Europe reaches their tiny corner of Hell in French Guinea, each man must make his choice to submit or revolt.
In this hell-on-earth, the toughest men can suffer and endure. But even the toughest men can only take so much. And that is when they turn on their captors ...