A group of scientists is sent to the planet Arkanar to help the local civilization, which is in the Medieval phase of its own history, to find the right path to progress. Their task is a difficult one: they cannot interfere violently and in no case can they kill. The scientist Rumata tries to save the local intellectuals from their punishment and cannot avoid taking a position.
A story, which takes place in 2013, describes the world overflowing with "dangerous" criminals due to the official termination of death penalty. The UN "blue helmets" under the directive from the central authority (i.e., One World Government) decided to conduct a social "experiment" by forcibly dumping the outlaws on the deserted island...
It happened in the sixties, during the political thaw in the Soviet Union... but our story unfolds in the coldest terrain of the country. It was an unexplored and unbeaten terrain of boundless ice-field and forbidding rocks. This was the proper place for real men and real romantics. Our story is about the geologists prospecting gold in the Extreme North.
