the main story begins with the rescue of professor william waterman sherman, who is picked up by a steamship while floating among a strange wreck of twenty deflated gas balloons in the north atlantic. sherman, a recently retired schoolteacher, was last seen three weeks earlier leaving san francisco on a giant balloon, determined to spend a year drifting alone, because he wants to relax. the world waits breathlessly to find out how sherman could have circumnavigated the globe in record time and landed in the ocean with twenty balloons rather than the one with which he began his journey. after several days' rest and a hero's welcome, the professor recounts his journey before a captivated audience.