The narrator is an unnamed crewman—presumably a captain, though this is never explicitly stated—of a Spanish ship sailing from Peru to China in the early 17th century. Lost at sea, the narrator prays to God for deliverance, only to be deposited on the shores of the mysterious island of Bensalem.

Acting largely as an audience surrogate, the narrator learns about Bensalem through conversations with three interlocutors who recall participants in Socrates’s philosophical dialogues. First, he learns about the civilization’s history and conversion to Christianity from a governor-priest; second, he learns about the island’s moral and cultural customs from Joabin; and finally, he learns about the community’s astounding academic and technological works from the Father of Salomon’s House, the island’s national academic institution. Through these three respective dialogues, Bacon paints a portrait of Bensalem’s spiritual, civic, and scientific identities, which complement one another in producing what the author believes to be an ideal utopian society.

Near the end of the unfinished novel, the Father of Salomon’s House requests an audience with the narrator. When the Father arrives in the city, it is with great pomp and circumstance, as he is surrounded by 50 attendants and carried on a chariot.