Rudi and Dallas work at Kos, a plastic fibre manufacturing plant. The day the factory closes down, their life is shattered and everything flares up around them. As it delves into the saga of around fifty characters, "The Living and the Dead" tells the love story of a young couple, Rudi and Dallas, who are swept along in the torrent of contemporary history. Between passion and insurrection, torment and revolt, the secrets of Rudi and Dallas and those of a city where, in the struggle for survival, people are pitted against one another, families ravaged, and the rules governing intimate, social and political behaviour are broken. In a world where economic rationale holds more sway than a concern for people, who should die? Who may live?