The novel is set during a future nuclear war, although for contemporary audiences it would probably feel more like a past nuclear war, since it is based on WWII. During this war, a group of boys is evacuated from England to Australia. Their plane crashes somewhere along the way. The fact that all adults on board have been killed, in addition to the war that has driven the boys from their homeland, creates a setting in which the children have no to rely upon but themselves.
The island on which they crash is tropical. There are continual references to "the jungle", and the plants are described as "vines and creepers". A basic description is:
roughly boat-shaped: humped near this end with behind them the jumbled descent to the shore. On either side rocks, cliffs, treetops and a steep slope: forward there, the length of the boat, a tamer descent, tree-clad, with hints of pink: then the jungly flat of the island, dense green, but drawn at the end to a pink tail. There, where the island petered out in water, was another island; a rock, almost detached, standing like a fort, facing them across the green with one bold, pink bastion.
Wild pigs live there as well, and they constitute a major portion of the boys' diet later in the book. The island remains unnamed, but there is a question as to whether it has been previously discovered and charted or not. Ralph claims it has, but his father is in the Royal Navy, & he may just speaking from pride. The ship that rescues them is drawn by their smoke, not any other knowledge of the island, so there is a suggestion that they could have remained unfound.
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