The Mysterious Island

During the American Civil War, a group of five Northerners led by Cyrus Smith escapes from Southern captivity with the help of a balloon. A windstorm drives their balloon over the Pacific Ocean, where it crashes into the water, and the escapees save themselves on a deserted island. In honour of the American president and anti-slavery advocate, they name it Lincoln Island.

After securing their basic survival, the castaways use all their scientific and technical knowledge and the island's natural conditions to build a comfortable settlement. The group of castaways includes various professions (an engineer, a ship's carpenter, a journalist, a naturalist), and alongside an adolescent boy, there is also a black man and later even a former convict, Ayrton—a character from Verne's novel *In Search of the Castaways*—whom the castaways found on the nearby Tabor Island. They all join forces to overcome the hardships of their situation and master nature for their own benefit. In this way, Verne celebrates human solidarity, the strength of the collective, and friendship between people.