 The rock the lighthouse stands on is dubbed 'Three Skeleton Key', named after a tragedy when three escaped convicts became ship-wrecked on the rock and eventually died of hunger and thirst- the only thing left of them were a heap of bones cleaned off by scavenging birds.The three lighthouse attendants are headkeeper, Itchoua (the eldest of the men), Le Gleo, and the narrator (whose name is never given).An abandoned ship, infested with ferocious rats, makes landfall.