 Black Beauty returns from the wild to save the life of a thirteen-year-old girl. Both of them - the capricious young orphan Bella and the black horse - are eventually adopted by country doctor Dr. Austin, who lets them live on his farm. Here they find new friends, with whom they try to find out the reason why a ship has mysteriously disappeared. But it s not only the children who are interested in the ship: some shady characters soon make the situation highly dangerous, using all the means at their disposal to find the gold from the "Astoria". These and other occurrences that take place in the first few days of 1900 shake the inhabitants of the small Australian coastal town of Yarandilly out of their normally peaceful way of life...