When the ship that Andrew and Clara are on, en route to Oceania, founders after striking an iceberg in the south Indian Ocean, and Andrew fetches up, with his manservant, on the desolate Marion Island, around 1,500 miles southeast of the Cape of Good Hope. It is there that Andrew finds the true love of his life, Mary, who had been shipwrecked on the island some 15 years before and who had been living there alone.