Bill Holm, often called the bard of the Midwest, takes readers on an excursion to islands both real and symbolic.

Like a modern-day literary Darwin, Bill Holm travels to Isla Mujeres, an exceptional island east of the Yucatan Peninsula; Moloka'i, whose history is graced by the example of Father Damien; Iceland, with a human genetic code nearly unmatched in its purity; Madagascar, an island of musical and botanical eccentricities; and Mallard Island, tucked in Rainy Lake, near the Canadian border. He also visits islands of ideas, including the Necessary Island of the Imagination, the Piano Island–located in the man-made lake under the atrium sky of an upscale hotel in the far interior of China–and the acute isolation of the Island of Pain.

Writing with the mindset of a 19th-century traveler for whom the journey is as important as the destination, Holm appeals to the traveler and the philosopher in everyone.