This is the story of how Mr. Craig, the narrator, and two intrepid widows, Mrs. Lecks and Mrs. Aleshine, survive a shipwreck, "sweep" their way across the Pacific with oars when their lifeboat founders, and take refuge on a desert island. always conscious of proprieties, the two woman insist on paying board while they stay in the abandoned summer-home, leaving it in a ginger-jar on the mantle. And when another set of refugees, the irascible Mr. Enderton,his daughter, and the three sailors, also land on the island, the two woman insist that they pay board as well. When the five of them (minus the sailors) finally return to America, the ginger-jar shows up again, under the most astonishing circumstances.