Asterix and Obelix volunteer to resolve the issue by going fishing, to which end they borrow a boat from Geriatrix.

After a storm, they get lost, but despite Obelix's concerns, they do not reach the edge of the world; instead, following a brief encounter with the pirates, they arrive on an island (which the reader surmises is Manhattan Island) with delicious birds that the Gauls call "gobblers" (turkeys), bears and "Romans" with strange facial paintings (Native Americans).

Soon they earn the "Romans"' affection, but they decide to leave after the "centurion" chooses Obelix as his rather Rubenesque daughter's fiancé.

Seeing a boat coming, Asterix climbs a cairn of rocks holding a torch and a book like the Statue of Liberty to attract it.

The crew are anachronistic Norsemen (with names like Herendethelessen, Steptøånssen, Nøgøødreåssen, Håråldwilssen, Irmgard, Firegård, and their Great Dane, Huntingseåssen) – who managed a Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact and take the Gauls, who they thought to be the local natives, to their homeland as proof that there are continents beyond Europe.