A letter from a sea captain, signed only with cryptic initials, directs an experienced sailor to built and outfit a ship, and to assemble a crew to sail on a dangerous adventure. The voyage starts towards a northerly destination with, as far as anyone knows, no captain aboard. After some time at sea, the captain finally appears and announces his identity, and his plan to sail to the North Pole. The crew faces dangers and hardship as they fight their way through the icy seas, while the captain drives them with single-minded focus to find a passage ever farther north.

In his usual style, Verne includes lots of history and scientific explanations in the story. The Adventures of Captain Hatteras was first published in 1864 under the title Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras. At the time, the polar regions hadn't been fully explored; with the story set in 1861, it would be nearly fifty years before an explorer reached the pole.