On a long ocean voyage aboard the passenger vessel Pandora, bound for New Zealand, the confined world of shipboard life breeds intrigue, romance, and dangerous secrets among its passengers and crew. Vernon Blythe, a young ship's officer, discovers that Iris Hetherley, a woman he has loved since they first met in Scotland five years earlier, is travelling in the second cabin under the assumed name of Miss Douglas. She is accompanied only by her loyal servant Maggie Greet. Iris confesses to Vernon that she is not the widow she initially claimed to be, but rather a woman still married to and abandoned by Godfrey Harland, a passenger travelling in the first-class saloon. Harland is actively courting Grace Vansittart, a wealthy heiress travelling with her parents, with apparent intentions of bigamy. Meanwhile, Alice Leyton, who has been considered informally engaged to Vernon Blythe, increasingly finds herself drawn to Captain Lovell, a retired army officer also aboard the ship. Though her mother is fond of Vernon and considers Alice's behaviour towards him disloyal, Alice eventually confesses to Vernon that her feelings have changed. Vernon, who has never stopped loving Iris, accepts the release from the quasi-engagement with more relief than pain, freeing himself honourably to pursue Iris once more. Maggie Greet, devoted to her mistress Iris despite having once been seduced and wronged by Harland himself, becomes engaged to Will Farrell, a second-cabin passenger who harbours his own bitter grievance against Harland. Farrell reveals that Harland's real name is Horace Cain, and that he is a forger who years ago committed fraud at Starling's Bank, then fled to America leaving Farrell to bear the suspicion and the ruin of his reputation. Farrell has encountered Harland again aboard the Pandora and is determined to eventually settle accounts with him. Iris, learning the full extent of her husband's criminal past through Farrell and recognising his deliberate pursuit of Grace Vansittart, resolves that she cannot stand by and allow another woman to become his victim. She agrees to attend a theatrical performance organised by the passengers, concealed behind a veil, to observe Harland's behaviour towards Grace Vansittart with her own eyes. What she witnesses confirms the worst of her suspicions and hardens her resolve to act, though the precise means and timing of her intervention remain uncertain as she weighs the consequences for herself, for Harland, and for the innocent party Grace. The voyage itself provides a vivid backdrop to these human dramas: the ship crosses the equator, endures calms and violent squalls, sails into Antarctic latitudes past icebergs and whaling vessels, and suffers a fire caused by a careless young passenger named Harold Greenwood, which Vernon Blythe extinguishes with prompt courage. A child, little Winifred Leyton, falls overboard and is rescued by Vernon at considerable personal risk, an act that deepens Alice Leyton's guilt over her treatment of him while earning Iris's profound admiration. By the voyage's end the principal strands are tightly drawn. Vernon loves Iris but cannot openly pursue her while she remains bound to a living husband. Iris knows she must confront Harland before they reach port, both to assert her own claims upon him and to protect Grace Vansittart from ruin. Farrell awaits his moment of reckoning with the man who destroyed his prospects. And Harland, aware that both his past and his present schemes are known to hostile witnesses, grows increasingly uneasy, sensing that the net is closing around him even before the ship reaches New Zealand.
By Florence Marryat · First published 1881 · Genre: Victorian Fiction, Domestic Drama, Romance · 15 chapters