The narrative follows a wealthy young man and a boy who finance and join a sea expedition to locate a reported treasure ship near the South Pole. Their voyage brings shipboard fights, stowaways, capture, and escapes, and calls at South American ports before pressing into southern seas. They face fog, storms, hostile locals, polar bears, drifting ice and a castaway on a vast berg, using ingenuity to survive. Episodes mix action and survival, nautical detail, and a curious suggestion of polar magnetism, ending with family reunions and a return home.