The story opens in February 1897. Sard Harker is mate on a merchant vessel, the "Pathfinder", under the command of Captain Carey, and is probably aged around 30. The ship is in the fictional port of Las Palomas. Ten years previously, on 18 March 1887, Sard was serving on another ship, the "Venturer", in exactly the same harbour when he had a strange dream that he would meet a girl on the second of three visits to a white house called Los Xicales.