Mario Jimenez, a young Chilean fisherman, is desperately in love with the beautiful and sensual Beatriz Gonzalez. He leaves his job and becomes the postman of Isla Negra, an island where the only person who sends and receives mail is the great poet Pablo Neruda. Far from civilization, the relationship of human friendship and poetic complicity gradually emerges, against the backdrop of a country approaching its tragic and dramatic destiny. The deep friendship of two seemingly disparate men is captured in a groundbreaking book about beauty, love, and freedom. In its pages, people meet, unite, and create poetry both literally and metaphorically.