Grade 12 · Visual story guide
Follow Jim Hawkins from a quiet seaside inn to Treasure Island. Every episode is divided into three clear visual moments, with the explanation kept underneath the image where it is easy to read.
The complete plot
Use this map before reading to understand the direction of the story. Select any stop to move directly to that episode.
The story begins
A stranger’s arrival brings Captain Flint’s hidden past to Jim’s quiet home.
Jim Hawkins lives with his parents, who run the Admiral Benbow Inn beside the sea. One day Billy Bones, an old sailor who once served under the feared pirate Captain Flint, arrives with a large sea chest.
Dr Livesey, the honest local doctor and magistrate, visits the inn and treats Billy when the sailor becomes ill. Billy is frightened because former members of Flint’s crew, including Black Dog and the blind pirate Pew, are searching for him and his chest.
Pew finally finds Billy and gives him the black spot, a warning used by the pirates. Soon afterwards Billy collapses and dies, leaving Jim and his mother alone with the mysterious chest and the danger surrounding it.
The secret is revealed
Jim escapes with the object that turns Billy’s mystery into a treasure voyage.
Jim and his mother know that Billy’s former shipmates may return. Because Billy never paid his complete bill, Jim’s mother takes only the money he owes, while Jim removes a separate cloth-covered packet from the chest.
Jim and his mother leave the inn and hide beneath a nearby bridge as Pew’s group arrives. Law officers soon drive the pirates away, and their leader takes Jim to the trustworthy Dr Livesey so that the packet can be kept safe.
Dr Livesey opens the packet at the home of his friend Squire Trelawney, a wealthy and respected local gentleman. The packet contains Captain Flint’s treasure map, so the two trustworthy men decide to organize a voyage and invite Jim to join them.
The expedition takes shape
The ship is ready, but its friendly new cook may not be what he appears to be.
Squire Trelawney travels to Bristol, buys a sailing ship called the Hispaniola and begins employing a crew. Jim later arrives at the busy port and sees the ship that will carry the expedition to Treasure Island.
Trelawney hires Long John Silver, a friendly Bristol innkeeper with one leg, as the ship’s cook. Jim remembers Billy’s warning about a seaman with one leg, but Silver appears so pleasant, clean and helpful that Jim begins to trust him.
Captain Smollett, the experienced and honest captain of the Hispaniola, learns that the sailors already know about the supposedly secret treasure voyage. He warns Dr Livesey and Squire Trelawney that the crew may place the ship in danger.
The truth comes out
An ordinary apple allows Jim to uncover the plan hidden aboard the ship.
The Hispaniola leaves Bristol and sails towards Treasure Island. Silver behaves like a friendly, capable cook, and his popularity with the sailors makes Captain Smollett’s suspicions difficult to prove.
Jim climbs into the deck’s apple barrel because he wants an apple. Hidden below the rim, Jim hears Silver reveal that he once served Captain Flint and now leads pirates who plan to take the treasure and seize the Hispaniola.
Jim secretly reports the conversation to Captain Smollett, Dr Livesey and Squire Trelawney. The four allies realize that the loyal people are outnumbered, so they must pretend to know nothing as Treasure Island appears ahead.
The island changes everything
Jim acts without a plan and discovers both Silver’s true nature and a new ally.
At Treasure Island, many sailors become impatient and begin disobeying orders. Captain Smollett gives the crew an afternoon ashore to delay an immediate mutiny, expecting Silver to control the restless sailors and bring them back.
Thirteen sailors leave, including Silver, suspected pirates and a few honest men whom Silver still hopes to recruit. Jim has no order or secret mission: he simply makes an impulsive decision to slip into one boat and go ashore.
In the forest, Jim secretly sees Silver pressure the honest sailor Tom to join the pirates. Tom refuses, and Jim finally understands how dangerous Silver is. Jim escapes deeper into the trees and meets Ben Gunn, a sailor marooned there for three years.
Two groups, one map
The loyal expedition creates a safe base and refuses Silver’s offer.
While Jim is with Ben Gunn, Captain Smollett, Dr Livesey, Squire Trelawney and their loyal sailors carry food, medicine and other supplies from the Hispaniola to a strong wooden stockade with fresh water.
Ben Gunn offers to help the expedition and tells Jim about a small boat hidden near a white rock. Jim then reaches the stockade and safely rejoins Captain Smollett, Dr Livesey, Squire Trelawney and the loyal sailors.
Silver, now leading the pirates, enters under a white flag and offers peace in exchange for Captain Flint’s treasure map. Captain Smollett refuses to surrender it, and Silver returns to his followers with neither the map nor an agreement.
Jim acts alone
Ben Gunn’s tiny boat gives Jim a chance to take the Hispaniola from the pirates.
After a difficult clash at the stockade, Captain Smollett needs time to recover. Jim leaves without permission, walks to the large white rock and finds Ben Gunn’s tiny handmade boat hidden beside it.
Jim carries the little boat into the water, climbs inside and paddles towards the Hispaniola at night. Jim cuts the anchor rope, allowing the ship to turn and drift with the tide so that Silver’s group cannot simply sail away.
The next morning Jim reaches the drifting Hispaniola, survives Israel Hands’s deception and brings the ship safely into the North Inlet. When Jim later returns to the stockade, he finds that Silver’s group now occupies it and takes him prisoner.
The final search
The map leads to an empty pit, but Ben Gunn already knows where the treasure is.
Silver protects Jim because he hopes Jim can later help him avoid punishment. Jim learns that Dr Livesey willingly gave Silver the stockade and map because Ben Gunn had already moved the treasure, making the map much less useful.
Silver’s group follows the map across the island but finds only an old empty pit. Dr Livesey, Ben Gunn and the loyal sailor Abraham Gray arrive to help Jim, while the remaining pirates lose their last hope of finding Flint’s gold there.
Ben Gunn reveals the treasure inside his secret cave. Jim’s loyal companions load the gold onto the recovered Hispaniola and sail home; Silver later escapes with one bag of coins, while Jim and the surviving expedition members return safely to England.