The climb of Shisha Pangma, a step in the mountaineering life and odyssey of Jurek Kukuczka, shows the expedition in which he climed his last 8000, the fourteenth. The characters are Kukuczka and Arthur Hajzer, two people who differ in age as well as in culture and interests. Two independent characters who are are joined by their passion for the mountains which creates a deep and lasting friendship that would hardly be likely to occure in other environments and under other circumstances.