The SS Cunningham rescues a man adrift in the Atlantic Ocean, clinging to a wooden platform and 20 deflated balloons.

Professor Sherman refuses to describe his adventure to anyone until he can address his San Francisco Explorers' Club in person.

The US president sends his personal railroad car to transport Sherman from New York to San Francisco.

Sherman arrives by presidential train to a citywide parade and hero's welcome in San Francisco.

Sherman begins his Explorers' Club lecture, explaining that he retired from decades of teaching to travel alone by balloon.

Sherman's giant balloon, the Globe, launches from San Francisco watched only by four friends with almost no public notice.

A seagull fighting over garbage Sherman tossed overboard punches a hole in the balloon on the seventh day of flight.

Sherman cuts away the basket house so the deflating balloon can reach shore and crash-lands exhausted on a beach.

Mr. F. wakes Sherman on the beach, gives him a formal white suit, and reveals the island is Krakatoa.

Mr. F. opens a door in the mountain to reveal a blindingly bright cave made entirely of solid diamond.

Mr. F. explains that shipwrecked Mr. M founded the Krakatoa colony after discovering the diamond mines.

Mr. F. shows Sherman a large wooden platform surrounded by 20 folded balloons ready to inflate and launch in 10 minutes.

During Sherman's afternoon lecture, violent earthquakes crack a wall open and Mr. M orders an immediate evacuation.

The escape platform lifts off just before Krakatoa erupts in seven deafening explosions that send shock waves across the ocean.

Sherman shows the Explorers' Club his diamond cufflinks and announces he will sell them to fund a new balloon voyage.

Professor Sherman is rescued from the Atlantic Ocean clinging to 20 balloons, and his mysterious refusal to explain himself captivates the entire world. After a presidential train ride and a citywide parade, he delivers a lecture at his Explorers' Club in San Francisco. He describes retiring from teaching, designing a balloon with a basket house, and launching across the Pacific—only to have a seagull destroy his balloon on the seventh day. Crash-landing on Krakatoa, Sherman meets Mr. F., who shows him a dazzling diamond cave and forbids him from ever leaving. The island's secret colony is eventually threatened by the volcano itself, forcing a dramatic escape on a balloon-powered platform. Sherman returns to his club as a hero, displaying diamond cufflinks and announcing his plan to build a new balloon and finish his interrupted voyage.

The headline events of Professor Sherman's accidental journey to Krakatoa and back.

The SS Cunningham's captain notes a mysterious red furnace sinking beneath the waves among the balloon debris.

The New York mayor presents Sherman with a key to the city, but Sherman still refuses to tell his story.

Balloons attached to the Explorers' Club dome lift it away overnight and it lands on a Native American reservation.

Joseph Tomes lights a cigar beneath his hydrogen balloon buggy during a demonstration, igniting a balloon and causing an explosion.

A little girl presents Sherman with a bouquet of balloons as he arrives at the Explorers' Club auditorium.

Sherman describes designing the Globe with clever features including a bamboo veranda, an inflatable mattress, and a still for fresh water.

Sherman's test flight goes well except that landing jolts break all his china, which he replaces with silver plates.

After four days at sea, Sherman spots a small fishing vessel below—the only sign of human life he has seen.

Sherman dumps garbage overboard to feed passing seagulls, believing the old sailors' tradition will bring him good luck.

Mr. F. reveals that he would have shot down Sherman's balloon had it flown directly over the island without landing.

Sherman tours Mr. M's Moroccan house, where a steam-powered machine keeps bedsheets continuously washed, pressed, and cycling through the bed.

An electric-powered chair hurls Mr. F. through an open window during a demonstration of the M family's gadgets.

Sherman and Mr. F. go for a swim and find the beach and seafloor rise and fall with the island's tremors.

Mrs. M agrees to sew Sherman a parachute for his escape from the island, though it will take two weeks.

The F family parachutes off the floating platform over Belgium, leaving Sherman alone to crash it into the Atlantic Ocean.

Before Sherman's story begins in earnest, a series of colorful events unfold around his rescue and homecoming: a captain's puzzling log entry, a mayoral ceremony in New York, and a club dome that floats away on too many balloons. San Francisco's preparations for Sherman's return produce their own chain of comic mishaps, from a failed flying couch to a balloon bouquet at the Club door. Once Sherman begins his lecture, secondary details fill in the richness of his adventure: the clever design of his balloon, a test flight that breaks all his china, and his encounter with the lone fishing vessel on the open sea. On Krakatoa, he uncovers Mr. F.'s dangerous warning about the island's secrecy, witnesses the island's most spectacular household inventions, and experiences a swim unlike any on Earth. The pool closes with the escape from Krakatoa and Sherman's solitary act of crashing the platform into the Atlantic.

The supporting moments that shaped Sherman's rescue, homecoming preparations, and life on Krakatoa.

The New York Tribune prints Sherman's rescue story and photograph under a mocking headline about being found in the wrong ocean.

Chimney sparks ignite the hydrogen-filled miniature balloons decorating San Francisco's welcome streets, setting off a chain of explosions.

A boy straps a parade balloon to himself and briefly flies; his lighter brother flies farther and grabs a church steeple.

Sherman tells the Explorers' Club that his trip was meant to be long and leisurely but turned out brief and accidental.

Sherman frantically throws his food supply, furniture, and patio railing overboard to keep the sinking balloon from hitting the ocean.

Sherman notices sharks swimming below the deflating balloon, eating the food packages crashing into the water around him.

Mr. F. presents Sherman with diamond cufflinks the size of lima beans and formally declares him a citizen of Krakatoa.

Mr. F. explains that flooding the market with diamonds would crash their value, making the entire mine worthless overnight.

Mr. F. explains that competing restaurants allowed the families to trade meals for mine shares, peacefully resolving their ownership dispute.

Sherman lies to Mr. F. and claims to be a professor of balloon aeronautics rather than admit he taught mathematics.

Sherman and F-1 ride the Balloon Merry-Go-Round as the spinning wheel of boats rises up the pole and flies free.

Flying over the volcano on the merry-go-round, Sherman peers into the glowing crater of boiling lava and feels terrified.

During the evacuation, Sherman tries to reach the diamond mine for souvenirs but violent shaking makes progress impossible.

The enormous cloud of ash and debris from Krakatoa's eruption engulfs the escape platform and drives it forward at high speed.

Nineteen Krakatoan families parachute simultaneously from the platform onto a jungle plateau in India, leaving the F family with Sherman.

A newspaper headline and a string of comic disasters in San Francisco set the stage for Sherman's confession that his grand solo voyage turned out short, accidental, and entirely beyond his control. Aboard the sinking balloon, two pivotal moments reshape Sherman's fate: his reckless decision to feed the seagulls and his desperate struggle to shed every object before plunging into shark-filled waters. On Krakatoa, Sherman learns the rules that hold the colony together—why diamonds must be sold slowly, how restaurants resolved a bitter dispute over mine ownership, and why he must lie about his past to avoid becoming a schoolteacher again. The Balloon Merry-Go-Round gives Sherman a terrifying glimpse into the volcano's boiling crater, a dark omen of the catastrophe to come. The pool closes with the eruption's most dramatic consequences: a suffocating ash cloud seizing the platform and nineteen families leaping simultaneously to safety over the jungles of India.

The key decisions, discoveries, and emotional turning points of Sherman's adventure.