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Some boys, aged between five and twelve, are the only survivors of an air crash, which took place on a tropical island and seemed to be a paradise on earth. They should be evacuated by plane from England since the danger of an atomic war.
Two of them, Ralph and Piggy, find a conch and use it to call the other survivors. In their first gathering Ralph is chosen as the leader and tells them that the only chance to get rescued is to keep a signal fire, which is kindled with Piggy's glasses. Jack, the school's choir leader, soon becomes obsessed with the idea of hunting the pigs on the island, which causes a lot of trouble and rivalry between him and Ralph.
The younger boys begin to talk about a beast and soon everyone believes in such a creature, so Jack decides to hunt and kill this unknown thing but he fails because of his own fear.
Later, he leaves the group and more and more boys go with him to start a new tribe, the "savages". They are painted, armed with spears and reigned by Jack. As a gift to the beast, they put the head of a killed pig on a spear and call it "lord of the flies".
One night they celebrate their hunting-success with a primitive ritual dance and kill Simon. He only wanted to tell them the truth about the beast. As in fact, "the beast" is the dead pilot with a parachute.
Only Piggy and the twins Sam & Eric, called Samneric, are with Ralph and support him. Once, the savages attack them at night and steal Piggy's glasses in order to be able to make their own fire.
Next day Ralph and his "group" go to Jack to get the glasses back and bring them onto the right way but Piggy is killed, Samneric forced to join the savages and the conch - still the symbol for their tribe - crushes. Only Ralph is able to flee.
Next day Jack and the savages fan out to kill Ralph. They set the woods on fire to find Ralph but he manages to run to the beach. There, he falls down wounded, exhausted and crying in front of a Naval Officer, who came because he saw the smoke and wanted to rescue them. He thinks that for the children everything must have been fun and games.
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