A seaman jumps off a vessel named H.M.S. Stor Konigsgaarten. Despite being a proficient swimmer, he faces difficulty reaching an isolated pier a mile away from the lights of the Queen of France due to a powerful undertow. Eventually, the current takes him to a small boat called Seabird II, where he climbs aboard without any trouble using a rope ladder hanging over its side. Although he detects sounds of human voices, laughter, music, and the aroma of cooked food, especially curry, he doesn't spot anyone around.

He hides in a nearby closet while hearing sounds from an open door. Although he intends to remain attentive, he dozes off. Later on, he wakes up to the sound of two women conversing on the deck. After a loud noise, he notices a woman's hand reaching out for a bottle of suntan oil near the slightly ajar door of his hiding place. The illumination from the hallway allows him to survey his surroundings in the closet. He discovers miniature orange trees in a crate and greedily consumes the bitter fruit. He infers that the boat travels away from the Queen of France and towards an island.

As soon as the boat reaches its destination, he notices two females walking towards a vehicle while the sound of an engine starting reaches his ears. Hurriedly, he heads towards the galley to find food but discovers that everything has already been tidied up. Therefore, he has to settle for plain Norwegian bread and mustard to satisfy his hunger.

When he steps out on the deck to see the island, he has no knowledge of the story that dates back 300 years, when the enslaved people who first laid eyes on the island went blind immediately. The concluding statement in the introduction piques the reader's interest in the island that had the power to blind those who saw it.