In the wastelands of Australia

The adventure novel Mistress Branican is one of the more extensive volumes in the Extraordinary Voyages series.

Shipwrecks were, unfortunately, a very common occurrence in the 19th century. This was the case with the sailing ship Franklin, which disappeared during a voyage from San Diego, California, to Calcutta, India. Only the captain's wife, Dolly Branican, refuses to believe her husband is dead. And because misfortunes rarely come alone, she soon loses her son in a boating accident.

After recovering from a mental breakdown four years later, she uses an inheritance from her uncle to start a search and sets off to Australia to find her husband. Nothing goes smoothly, however, and as is often the case in such situations, a villain appears on the scene alongside the immense natural difficulties. In this case, it is her cousin, Len Burker, who wants to kill Dolly and her husband John to claim their inheritance.

Whether Dolly manages to overcome all the difficulties and save her beloved husband is something the reader can find out at the end of the novel.