The plot is a gradual unfolding of a succession of events divided by intervals of
time. John Trenchard, a fifteen year old orphan lad, lives with his maiden aunt,
Miss Jane Arnold, in Moonfleet, a rundown tiny fishing village. One day while
John sits on a stone in the churchyard gazing out to the sea, a crack in the earth
running up the stone widens and discloses a large cavity beneath. Recalling
stories of a hidden Mohune diamond, owned by the treacherous Colonel John
Mohune, popularly known as Blackbeard, John explores the hole. Darkness
forces him to give up the search and he returns home to obtain a candle.
Forbidden by his aunt to go out at night, John waits until she retires and steals
out of the house. In the hole, he discovers a passageway leading to the Mohune
vault under the church. In the vault John comes upon the coffins of the dead
Mohune family. He also discovers, much to his surprise, a hoard of casks and
kegs and he realizes that this is a smuggler's cache.
Hearing voices and footsteps in the passageway, John desperately climbs up
behind one of the coffins for fear that he will be found by the smugglers and
silenced. Overhearing their conversation, John deduces that Elzevir Block, the
innkeeper, and Ratsey, the sexton, are the leaders of the smugglers. After they
leave, John is about to get down when he slips and grabs the rotten coffin in an
attempt to break his fall. His hand takes hold of what he believes is seaweed but
turns out to be, to his horror, Blackbeard's beard. Searching the coffiin for the
diamond, John finds a silver locket containing a piece of parchment on which
several verses from the Bible are written. Convinced that the verses are merely
a charm against evil spirits, John takes the locket and tries to leave.
Unfortunately, the hole has been sealed and John is trapped. Two days later
Master Ratsey and Eizevir Block hear a report of screams emerging from the
churchyard. Finding John, they take him to the Why Not? Inn where Elzevir
nurses John back to health. When Miss Arnold refuses to let John return home,
Elzevir offers him bed and board.
At an auction at the Why Not?, the unpopular Magistrate Maskew successfully
outbids Elzevir for the renewal of the lease of the Inn which has been in the
Block family for generations. Maskew attempts to put an end to the smuggling
and one night, eavesdropping at the Inn, learns of a prospective landing of a
cargo of goods. The hour of the landing is changed and Maskew, who arrives
two hours before the soldiers, is discovered by the smugglers. Since Maskew
had shot Elzevir's only son, David, the smugglers depart leaving Elzevir to kill
Maskew. Unable to stand by and see Maskew being killed, John spoils Elzevir's
aim and the shot goes wild. At that moment, the soldiers arrive and accidently
kill Maskew with one of their shots.
Since John has been wounded in the leg, Elzevir manages to carry him up a
steep path on the side of the cliff to safety. For three months John and Elzevir
hide in a sea-cave in an abandoned quarry as John's leg heals. One night when
Elzevir is away, Ratsey comes to warn them to leave the country and, in the
course of a conversation with John, unwittingly, supplies the key to Colonel
Mohune's Biblical message. When Elzevir hears the story on his return, he is
convinced that the diamond must be hidden in the well at Carisbrooke Castle.
At the castle, they locate the stone in the well, but the wellkeeper knows their
identity and threatens to turn them in for the reward unles they give him the
diamond. When Elzevir refuses, a struggle ensues and the well-keeper, losing his
footing, falls into the well.
Hoping to sell the diamond in Holland, Elzevir and John journey to the Hague.
There, Krispijn Aldobrand, a diamond merchant, dupes them into believing that
the diamond is worthless. In disgust Elzevir throws the diamond out of the
merchant's window. Back at their lodgings, John realizes that they have been
tricked and he convinces Elzevir, against his will, to go back to find the stone. On
their return, they find the stone gone but, dauntless, John climbs up on to a
porch from which he sees the merchant go to place the diamond in a safe.
Without hesitation, John breaks through the window in a desperate attempt to
recover the diamond. An alarm is set off and Elzevir and John are overpowered
by the jeweller's servants and thrown into prison. Convicted by the merchant's
false testimony, they are sentenced to life imprisonment.
Seldom seeing each other for almost ten years, John and Elzevir toil at the
construction of a fortress. At the end of this period, they are transferred to a
ship for Java. A terrible storm arises after they have been at sea for a few days.
The crew abandon the ship, and in an act of mercy, the gaoler offers the
prisoners a chance to save their lives by giving them a key to their chains. On
deck Elzevir and John see that they are in Moonfleet Bay and know that the ship
will soon run aground. The other prisoners disregard Elzevir's advice to stay
with the ship and take to a lifeboat. When the ship runs aground, John and
Elzevir jump to the beach and run through the surf hoping to reach the life-line,
thrown by men waiting on the shore, before the under-tow sucks them back out
to sea.
Elzevir reaches the rope, but as he stretches out a hand to John, a breaker
sweeps John back. Leaving the safety of the rope to help John, Elzevir manages
to give John a tremendous shove that enables him to catch the rope. The next
morning, John learns that Elzevir drowned saving his life.
Since the price on his head was removed years before, John is now a free man.
Learning unexpectedly that he is the heir to the diamond merchant's estate,
John puts the money to good use restoring the almshouses as Colonel John
Mohune had intended. John marries Grace Maskew, his childhood sweetheart,
raises a family and becomes Justice of the Peace of Moonfleet.
