Plot Summary

In 1830, Captain Robert FitzRoy kidnapped a young Aboriginal man from the Yamán ethnic group. The young man was taken to England aboard the HMS Beagle and christened Jemmy Button, because a mother-of-pearl button was all he paid for him. In England, he learned English and had tea with King William IV. A year later, he returned to his native Tierra del Fuego. Some thirty years later, a reverend set out for the southern coast of Tierra del Fuego. His immediate objective was to find Jemmy Button. The reverend confidently goes to this meeting with someone he assumes is now a "civilized" Aboriginal man. But what he finds comes as a surprise.