First published in 1975, it chronicles the adventure of ten orphans who embark on a dangerous journey across Jamaica in search of a new home, after a deadly pneumonia epidemic kills the caretakers of their orphanage and propels the country into a state of anarchy and desolation.

Containing elements of social science fiction, the text examines genuine human nature in conditions of chaos and despair, and explores how determination and self-will can help people achieve the unthinkable.

After the children leave Teacher Mack, they trudge onward through fields and forest lands, and at nightfall, sleep in an old deserted hut by the path.

The following day, the children hear the sounds of drumming and singing, and are soon approached by a group of mysterious people dressed in white robes.

As the group deduces, it would be dangerous to steal past the hotel, since they may be discovered and followed to as far as Last Man Peak, and would never feel safe from future attack.

In the pitch dark of the night, while the Goodhope Boys prepares to sleep, the older children masquerade themselves in glowing, scary outfits, and with Bess and the animals, perform a strident, eerie song and dance on the front lawn.

[1] In Fifty Caribbean Writers: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, Daryl Cumber Dance writes, "In Escape to Last Man Peak one recognizes a successful attempt to normalize a situation in language long seen as problematic for the Jamaican child and to put it into perspective.

D'Costa's style moves easily between the prose and the narrative passages—a relaxed and flexible rendering of educated local usage—and the dialogue ranging from broad vernacular to English, showing only slight Creole interference.