"Hearts of Three" by Jack London, summary

This book is an adventure novel, written in 1916, based on an original screenplay by Charles Goddard. Its writing coincided with the author’s fortieth birthday and was his fiftieth book. The plot was initially structured according to the conventions of silent cinema, with rapid scene changes and dynamic plot twists.

The novel gained widespread recognition in the Russian-speaking world thanks to the 1992 film adaptation — an adventure film of the same name directed by Vladimir Popkov and starring Sergei Zhigunov, Vladimir Shevelkov, and Alena Khmelnitskaya.

Thomas Regan’s plan and Francis’s departure

Young New York millionaire Francis Morgan, heir to a vast fortune and a descendant of 17th-century pirate Sir Henry Morgan, leads a carefree life. His father’s former partner, Thomas Regan, has long dreamed of ruining the Morgan family to avenge past stock market losses. Taking advantage of Francis’s carelessness, Regan hatches a devious scheme.

Regan bribes the Spanish adventurer Alvarez Torres. Torres convinces Francis that he has solved an old family riddle about Sir Henry Morgan’s treasure buried near Chiriqui Lagoon in Panama. Inflamed with excitement, Francis charters the schooner Angelica under Captain Trefethen and sets off. Meanwhile, Regan begins to devalue Morgan shares behind the scenes on the New York Stock Exchange.

Adventures in Chiriqui Lagoon and a meeting with a doppelganger

Arriving on the Panamanian coast, Francis disembarks near the Solano family estate. He is met on the shore by Señorita Leoncia Solano. The girl alternately kisses him and threatens him with a revolver, mistaking Francis for her fiancé, Henry Morgan, in hiding. Soon, Leoncia is bitten by a small labarri snake; Francis tempers a knife blade over matches and cuts the wound, saving the girl.

On Taurus Island, Francis finds the real Henry Morgan living in a hut. Henry turns out to be his spitting image and a distant relative. After a brief skirmish, the young men discover their relationship, develop a mutual liking, and form the company "Morgan & Morgan."

Henry reveals he is forced into hiding due to a false accusation of murdering Alfaro Solano, Leoncia’s uncle. Francis returns to Solano’s hacienda to prove his relative’s innocence and return Leoncia’s engagement ring. However, Torres betrays Francis to San Antonio Police Chief Mariano Vergara. The officer arrests Francis, mistaking him for the fugitive Henry.

San Antonio Trial and Prison Break

In San Antonio, the local judge sentences Francis to hang within half an hour. The next morning, Henry Morgan himself appears right at the foot of the gallows. His appearance and singing of a pirate song stops the execution and surrenders to the authorities to save Francis.

Francis, along with the family patriarch, Enrico Solano, and his sons, decides to rescue Henry. Buying counterfeit Three Stars whiskey for Pedro Zurita’s guards, the friends get the guards drunk. Francis obtains dynamite cartridges from the plantation and blows up the prison’s thick wall. Henry escapes to freedom. The fugitives escape on the schooner Angelica, but Chief of Police Vergara and Torres give chase on the steam tug Dolores.

Pursuit in the strait and ambushes in the jungle

In the narrow El Tigre Strait, Henry displays ingenuity: he drops a rope tied to empty bottles, cans, and a coffee pot. The rope, tangled around a propeller, stops the steamship Dolores, causing it to run aground. The pursuers make it to shore and continue the chase on foot.

Francis uses a clever maneuver to delay the gendarmes: he scatters bundles of silver dollars along a forest path. Later, the escaped peon sets fire to an oil stream near the Hermozillo Company’s oil fields. The fiery river cuts off the police detachment’s path. The fugitives retreat deep into the Cordillera.

The Cordillera Trials and the Blind Judge

In the mountains, the fugitives fall into the hands of the Blind Judge, also known as the Blind Bandit, who is establishing his own "Iron Justice" in the Cordillera. The blind old man subjects Henry and Vergara to the "Test of the Snake and the Bird." The police chief is blindfolded and given a rifle with one bullet, while Henry receives a silver bell. Thanks to his composure, Henry survives the test and wounds Vergara. The judge acquits Henry of murder.

The heroes continue their journey under the guidance of an old Mayan priest who guards a quipu — a sacred knotted script. After passing through the roaring "singing sands" and treacherous "quicksand," where the friends rescue each other with ropes, they find the entrance to a mountain treasure chamber.

The Valley of Lost Souls and the Death of the Prophetess

Inside the cave stand statues of the goddess Chiya with ruby eyes and the god Hzatzl with emerald eyes, and the passage is littered with the mummies of conquistadors. From the deep caverns, the heroes emerge into the isolated Valley of Lost Souls, home to a degenerate tribe ruled by a soothsayer named She Who Dreams.

Upon seeing Francis, She Who Dreams falls in love with him. To save his friends from being burned at the stake by the Sun God, Francis agrees to marry her. From the dungeon, they recover a chest of Mayan treasures. Later, Henry arrives on a plane with the American pilot Parsons and parachutes to rescue his friends from the hands of the Sun Priest.

Torres, driven by greed, steals the jewels and falls into an underground whirlpool along with the queen’s dog. The resulting flooding of the dungeon leads to the death of the Prophetess. Francis, Henry, and Leoncia swim through the underground stream to the banks of the Gualaqui River.

Stock market crash and capital rescue

Francis returns to New York with a portion of the treasure, where Thomas Regan has resorted to every means necessary to destroy his financial empire. Morgan shares are plummeting, and Regan plans to completely ruin the young man. Broker Bascom recommends that Francis declare bankruptcy.

On the day Francis is ready to admit defeat, Henry Morgan and Leoncia arrive at his office. With the assistance of Charlie Tipperary and his jeweler father, they sell millions of dollars’ worth of Mayan jewelry. With the cash in hand, Francis enters the stock market battle and crushes Regan’s raid, ruining the conspirator himself.

The mystery of Leoncia’s birth and a happy ending

A cunning Chinese trader in secrets, Yi-Pung, appears in New York. He brings ancient documents and items stolen from an English family. It turns out that Leoncia is not Enrico Solano’s biological daughter. She was stolen as an infant in Spain and taken to Panama, where Solano adopted her. Her real parents were the Morgans, English noblemen. Therefore, Leoncia is Henry Morgan’s biological sister.

This revelation removes all obstacles. Marriage between Henry and Leoncia is legally and morally impossible. Leoncia realizes that her sincere and profound feelings were always intended for Francis. Francis Morgan marries Leoncia, and Henry Morgan blesses their union.