The main characters are a former novelist named Richard Callum and his wife Frankie, who own a pub called the White Lion.

The spiders themselves are carnivorous and eat humans, and give off bodily heat intense enough to burn alive any person who gets too close to them.

Together with Harsen, Patricia, and science fiction author Vernon Stone, the Callums try to make it to the island's radio station to call for help so that they can thwart the invasion.

A television adaptation was broadcast by ITV in the Play of the Week series on 14 June 1960, scripted by Giles Cooper, and directed by Cyril Coke.

The novel was later adapted into a 1967 film, Night of the Big Heat (also known as Island of the Burning Damned) by Planet Film Productions, starring Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Patrick Allen, Sarah Lawson, Jane Merrow, and Kenneth Cope.