Similar to Joseph Conrad's better-known Heart of Darkness, this autobiographical short story, by Joseph Conrad, depicts a young man's first journey to the East. Youth is a haunting tale about ill omens, the passing of time and the making of a man. Five men sit around a mahogany table, drinking claret. As the wine loosens their tongues, one tells a story from his youth, recounting the strange voyage of the doomed ship Judea.