this book is about a swiss family that ship wreked onto a unihabited island, where they start of with a tent, and a few resources and the build a house in the trees. on the island they make many discoveries such as potatoes, parrots, elephants, donkeys, whales, shark, and many other things, they live on the island for 17 years until rescued by an english sailboat, but some of the family stays on the island with new people, and others travel to europe