Five brave northerners flee from the city of Richmond taken by the southerners in a hot air balloon. After a terrible storm, they find themselves on the shore of an uninhabited island. Life on the island becomes a real test of their ingenuity and courage. They manage not only to survive, but also to create a small civilization: they breed livestock, grow wheat from a single grain, produce labor and household items in their own small factories, and even conduct a real telegraph. But the island turns out to be not so uninhabited - someone mysterious more than once saves the heroes of the novel from inevitable death. The book is an abridged version of the novel.
