[1] At times relying on seemingly implausible coincidences, the story follows the fortunes of Rufus Dawes, a young man transported for a murder that he did not commit.

Structurally, For the Term of His Natural Life is made up of a series of semi-fictionalised accounts of actual events during the convict era, loosely bound together with the tragic story of its hero.

Most of the incidents and many of the individual characters are easily identifiable from historical sources including Marcus Clarke's own non-fiction work Old Tales of a Young Country.

She organises a mutiny with the help of three other men: Gabbett, James "Jemmy" Vetch or "the Crow" and a man nicknamed "the moocher", while John Rex is in hospital with the fever.

One night, a burning vessel is sighted and found out to be the Hydaspes; the ship on which Richard Devine is supposed to have sailed.

The following day, Dawes overhears the plans of the mutineers, but is taken to the hospital sick with the fever shortly afterwards.

He also attempts to befriend Sylvia, but the child resents him ever since witnessing his treatment of the convicts (especially that of Dawes, who went to the quarterdeck to return her ball).

The convicts succeed in taking the boat, killing two soldiers, wounding one, and marooning him with the Vickers, the pilot and Frere.

It is also Dawes, who, after Sylvia mentioned the coracles of the Ancient Britons, plans and succeeds in building a boat out of saplings and goat hide.

After some time they are found by an American vessel at which point Frere takes the rudder of the boat and Sylvia in his arms.

She is now a young woman of sixteen and engaged to Captain Maurice Frere, who has told the story of the mutiny in his own way: making himself the hero and claiming that Dawes attempted to murder all three of them.

Sarah Purfoy calls on Frere and begs him to speak in Rex's favour, saying that he left them food and tools.

Despite Dawes' initial hate for the man he considers to be a hypocrite, he is moved by North's begging for forgiveness and calling him "brother".

The next time he asks to see the chaplain he finds that North, an enemy to the bishop for his impious vices, has been replaced by Meekin, a dainty man, who lectures him on his sins rather than attempting to console him.

They get hopelessly lost in the bush and start eating one another, leaving only Gabbett and Vetch to struggle for not being the first to fall asleep.

Later, Gabbett is found on a beach by the crew of a whaling vessel, with the half-eaten arm of one of his comrades hanging out of his swag.

North, appalled at the horrible punishments inflicted but not really daring to interfere, renews his friendship with Dawes and also takes to Sylvia.

Frere has grown weary of his wife over the years and Sylvia married him only because she believed that she owed love to the man who allegedly saved her life.

Ever since Rex wanted to sell the family house, Lady Ellinor's suspicions have reached the point where she attempts to test her alleged son.

Rex suddenly understands their strange resemblance: he is also a son of Lord Bellasis; his mother was a servant in his house.

Sylvia, seeking comfort from the reverend, finds Dawes in his place, and now remembers the past as the gale reaches its greatest force.

For the Term of His Natural Life was originally published in twenty seven instalments in The Australian Journal between March 1870 and June 1872.

[2] The book was favourably reviewed in London by the Athenaeum, Spectator, Vanity Fair, The Graphic, The Standard and the Morning Post.

[4] Eventually, the novel became known as For the Term of His Natural Life but, originally, Clarke wanted the shorter title to suggest that this story was about the universal human struggle and the future Australian race.

[5] In his biography of Clarke, Brian Elliott described the novel as "the one work of fiction produced in the whole first century of Australia’s history to justify description as monumental.

[7] The German title was Deportirt auf Lebenszeit (Deported for Life) and it was published in Berlin by the house of Otto Janke.

The best-known film version came in 1927, featuring silent screen stars George Fisher and Eva Novak.

[19][20] An Australian mini-series, For the Term of His Natural Life was written and produced by Patricia Payne and Wilton Schiller in 1983 starring Colin Friels as Dawes and featuring Anthony Perkins and Patrick Macnee.

In 2012, Melbourne-based artist Philip Davey showed a series of works inspired by the book under the exhibition name "This Fantastic Land of Monstrosities".

In 2013, Patricia Payne reintroduced For the Term of His Natural Life in the form of an interactive iPad app Note that many different editions of this book exist.