Magellania-the region around the Strait of Magellan-is the home of Kaw-djer, a mysterious man of Western origin whom the indigenous people consider a demigod. A man whose motto is "Neither God nor master," he has shunned Western civilization and its hypocrisies in order to live peacefully on an island claimed by no one. But when a storm strands a thousand immigrants on his island and they ask him to be the leader of their colony, Kaw-djer must decide whether to help them live and prosper in this foreign land at the end of the world or leave them to their fate.