The paradise island of Lampedusa, where North Africa meets Rome, home of postcard vistas, white sand beaches, and the site of the most devastating debris washing up on the shore.

Stefano follows in the footsteps of generations of fishermen but in the twenty-first century the catch is very different: his job is to pull drowned bodies of migrants out of the Mediterranean and in the bleakest corners of the U.K. Denise tramps from door to door collecting pay day loans, witnessing crippling hardship and hearing complaints about immigration.