Charles Marlow's journey into the heart of Africa is an odyssey into corruption, absurdity and folly. He sees rapacious Europeans exploiting the Africans and conspiring against each other; he voyages upstream on a paddle-steamer that comes under lethal attack; and he encounters the great idealist, Mr Kurtz, the genius who seemed to represent the best of Europe. But Mr Kurtz has 'taken a high seat among the devils of the land', and Marlow returns to Europe bearing the burden of appalling knowledge, forced to make his 'choice of nightmares'.