Stanley Greene has gone to the island several times to bear witness to the population's gradual loss of faith. In the wake of the disaster, camps were created to shelter families that had lost everything. To this day, members of the lower and middle-class remain in these temporary refuges while the most fortunate have found ways to reconstruct their homes. The gulf between the different economic classes has never been deeper. Even though cooperation still exists, hope reconstruction dwindles.

The trauma of a life lost, the emergence of tuberculosis and the tragedy of rape bind the population to abject misery, and the "nightmare republic" documented by Stanley Greene. He reveals the lack of intimacy that has taken root in the camps, and the resulting inability to assert one's identity.