The plot of the novel hinges on the actions of a modest technical journalist, Keith Stewart, whose life has been focused on the design and engineering of small and scale-model precision machinery.

The couple plan a long pleasure cruise in their small yacht before settling in British Columbia, meanwhile leaving their 10-year-old daughter with Keith and his wife.

The evidence suggests that Keith's brother-in-law converted his wealth into diamonds to take with him abroad to evade export and currency restrictions intended to prevent capital leaving Britain.

Finding no conventional way to get further which is within his means, he takes passage on the hand-built sailing ship of an illiterate half-Polynesian from Oregon, Jack Donelly.

Keith and Jack arrive safely in Tahiti but are in danger of being thrown into jail due to not having proper ship's papers.

There he meditates on the fate that has brought him so far, takes many pictures, erects a headstone, and salvages the yacht's engine, which he arranges to ship back to Britain to sell.

After an amusing incident where Ferris's much-married daughter, Dawn, runs off with Jack Donelly, the yacht proceeds to Washington State.

Keith claims to have discovered the diamonds in luggage left behind by his in-laws, and the proceeds from their sale enable them to take care of their niece's education and other needs.

The first is between the seriousness with which the craft of model engineering is treated by its practitioners, and the physical scale of operations (which in today's language might be dismissed as "boys' toys").

[2] The top ten in that poll included four works by Ayn Rand and three by L. Ron Hubbard and according to David Ebershoff, Modern Library's publishing director, "the voting population [was] skewed.

The gimmick, devised in the novel by Keith Stewart to bring back to UK the diamonds needed for his niece's trust, is never made explicit, although easily figured by the reader.