Timothy Beadle's father indentures him to a ship's captain and he is soon in Mid-Atlantic on his way to the far north-western shores of The New World. Padding the deck and climbing the rigging is exhilarating to the young English farm boy. The captain is a fair, God-fearing man who ensures Timothy also learns reading, writing and arithmetic. Strange islands and naked savages fill Timothy with curiosity and wonder. Fate has more changes in store for Timothy. As the ship sails home with holds full of rich furs, a cyclone hits and Timothy ends up on the shores of Spanish California. Rescued by a young Indian boy, Jaime, and treated by the village medicine woman, Timothy is taken before grey robed priests, who offer him sanctuary when a local official tries to imprison him as a pirate. Jaime had dreamed of Timothy's arrival months before. Both sense the blood bond that ties them together and they unite in an effort, led by Father Junipero Serra, to expand the catholic faith and Spain's control of the Californias.