After many days of drifting, the Captain of the good ship Martha finds that he cannot save the vessel which is already a wreck. He will not abandon her, however, but insists that Jack Seymour, his First Officer, take his wife, Mrs. Karnes in the only boat left on the ship and try to save themselves, if possible. After much persuasion, they consent and succeed in reaching a small uninhabited island, where they manage to live until they are rescued by Captain Barnes himself, who had given them up as lost. After his wife and First Mate leave the vessel, the Captain was obliged to take to a raft and he was picked up by a passing ship. His sufferings caused him to lose his memory, and it did not return until he met an old friend in his home town who showed him a picture of his wife. With his memory restored; he takes charge of another vessel and starts out to sea. While crossing the same latitude as the wreck of the Martha, he sees at a distance, a signal fire. He launches a boat and he and two of his crew follow the signal, reaching the very island where his wife and John Seymour have lived as best they could on sea food and edible herbs. The Captain, when he recognizes his wife, rushes madly to her and she throws herself joyously into his arms. In gratitude, the Captain offers his hand to Seymour for protecting and caring for his wife. He grasps it warmly, but refuses to accompany them to the boat or leave the island, preferring to remain in his loneliness, an exile, for he learned to love and honor the woman, who, in the midst of privation, remained constant to her husband and true to herself.