As it seems Moominpappa has left his turbulent youth out of his memoirs (with the usual self aggrandizement of autobiographers he thought them too turbulent for print), he one day decides to at least tell about it so it won't be completely lost to posterity. We learn about his escape from the terrible orphanage and how he meets Fredriksson and sails off with him in his ship "The Oshun Oxtra" (his friend the Fuddler isn't a very good speller), how they managed to launch the ship and, finally, whom Moominpappa inadvertently managed to rescue.