A journey full of odd finds and absurd situations, blending fact and fantasy.

Inspired by an actual crossing from 1980, Jean Rolin tells the tale of a trip on a freighter to deserted archipelago between Alaska and Kamchatka by way of Norway, Africa, and Brazil.
Aboard the Meistersinger, the captain's an opium addict sulking over a pear gone missing from his snack rations; sailors toss fresh cement at each other for fun; an odd, rubbery animal called the pil-pil predicts rough seas and swells. But our narrator persists to the end of his outrageous adventure, and gets dropped off at the foot of Mt. Shishaldin, a volcano the Aleutians call Sisquk, meaning "mountain which points the way when I am lost"...