Master of the World contains a number of scientific ideas, current to Verne's time, which are now widely known to be errors.

Set in the summer of 1903, a series of unexplained events occur across the Eastern United States, caused by objects moving with such great speed that they are nearly invisible.

The first-person narrator, John Strock, 'Head inspector in the federal police department' in Washington, D.C., travels to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina to investigate.

Robur drives the strange craft to elude his pursuers, heading to the Caribbean and into a thunderstorm.

The name suggests Mount Airy, located elsewhere in North Carolina; its description as flat-topped is similar to the mountain nearby known as Table Rock.