The crew of the yacht "Duncan" finds a bottle in the sea containing three notes half-erased by the sea. By combining the content of the three notes, the owners of the yacht, Lord Glenarvan and his wife, learn about the shipwreck of the "Britannia," a ship captained by the visionary Captain Grant.

They decide to search for the survivors of the shipwreck across the globe, relying only on the latitude where the shipwreck occurred. They will also take Captain Grant's children with them. On their journey around the world, they will encounter obstacles, most of which are devised by their cunning adversary.

Will they eventually manage to find the exact location of the shipwreck? And if so, will Captain Grant have survived after so long? The reader is swept away by Jules Verne on a journey around the world, following his heroes as they face storms, volcanic eruptions, shipwrecks, and even fierce bandits.