Trope
The utopia with a dark secret
The convention of a seemingly perfect society whose harmony rests on a hidden and terrible cost.
The utopia with a dark secret in fiction: 3 works
Omelas's perfect happiness depends on the ceaseless suffering of one hidden child.
A staged catastrophe engineers world peace at the cost of millions, a utopia built on atrocity.
The idyllic town of Seahaven conceals that it exists solely to imprison its unwitting star.