The blue lagoon

The novel picks up a day or so after the events at the conclusion of The Garden of God. Dick Lestrange, son of Dicky and Emmeline Lestrange, is about fourteen or fifteen. He has come to love Katafa, a Spanish girl who is the adopted daughter of the Kanaka people of the island of Karolin, about forty miles from the island (Palm Tree) where his parents lived. Now she has brought him to her island, and due to a series of complicated political circumstances, the people have declared him their new king.



Dick is not unwilling to lead the people, but needs advice and guidance. He also sees immediately that the island has a defense problem. In The Garden of God, all the Karolin men of warrior age and status have died as the result of an ill-advised attack on Palm Tree—and all their war canoes were burned. The Melanesian slaves who took over Palm Tree at the end of The Garden of God were all men; if they decide to make Palm Tree (which the Kanaka call Marua) their permanent home, they will attack Karolin, the nearest island, to steal women.