Jack Duluoz, a weary and aging writer, retreats to a remote cabin in Big Sur to escape the suffocating pressures of his sudden fame and the relentless grip of alcoholism. As he attempts to find solace in the rugged California landscape, he is instead besieged by the physical and psychological ravages of delirium tremens. The narrative, presented in Kerouac's signature spontaneous prose, tracks his descent into paranoia and his desperate struggle to reconcile his creative spirit with his deteriorating mental and physical health. The story unfolds as a raw, first-person confession that captures the isolation of the wilderness against the internal noise of a fractured mind.

This work is widely regarded as a pivotal, if harrowing, entry in the Beat canon that exposes the darker side of the movement's celebrated lifestyle. Critics often highlight the book's departure from the exuberant energy of earlier works, noting instead a somber, introspective focus on the consequences of excess. The text is frequently analyzed for its technical mastery of spontaneous prose, which serves to heighten the reader's sense of the protagonist's psychological instability. By documenting the decline of his own persona, Kerouac provides a stark counterpoint to the romanticized image of the wandering writer. The inclusion of the 'Sea' poem is consistently cited as a profound resolution to the narrative's intense, hallucinatory atmosphere.