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Voyager is the third novel in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. The story centers on a time-travelling 20th-century doctor Claire Fraser and her 18th-century Scottish husband Jamie Fraser.

Plot Summary[]

The year is 1968, and Claire has just discovered, with the help of Roger Wakefield, that her husband Jamie Fraser may not have died at the Battle of Culloden, an assumption she has held for twenty years. As Claire, her daughter Brianna, and Roger track Jamie through the historical record, Claire is torn between her duty as a mother and her desire to return to Jamie. For his part, Jamie finds himself not well pleased that the British refused to kill him after the failed Rising, and must instead find his own way forward, his wife gone and his country devastated by war and famine. After twenty years apart, Claire casts herself through the mysterious stone circle once more and travels back to the 18th century to find Jamie, unsure of exactly what or who she will find when she does.

Timeline of Significant Events[]

1746

  • April 16: Jamie awakens on Culloden Moor, thinking he might be dead, and soon enough wishing that he was. Lord Melton, an English officer, refuses to allow Jamie to be shot along with his fellow traitors, knowing that his brother owes Fraser a debt of honor. Jamie is sent home to Lallybroch.
  • Jenny nurses Jamie back to health and helps him stay hidden from English patrols.

1752

  • Having lived in a cave since his return to Lallybroch seven years prior, Jamie hunts when he can and ventures down to the manor house once a month to shave, when it's reasonably safe to do so. With Ian gone away to prison, Jamie provides for his family and tenants as best he can.
  • November: Upon the birth of his third nephew, Jamie is nearly found out by the English soldiers that pay a visit to Lallybroch.
  • While Jamie stays hidden in his cave, Fergus is waylaid by English soldiers and the skirmish ends in the violent amputation of Fergus's hand.

1753

  • Spring: Jamie arranges to have himself captured in such a way that his family and tenants will take the reward for his capture.
  • On Jamie's last night in Scotland, Mary MacNab brings him his meal, and offers her body to him, which he reluctantly accepts.
  • May 16: Jamie enters Ardsmuir Prison.

1755

  • February 15: Lord John Grey arrives to replace Harry Quarry as the new governor of Ardsmuir Prison.
  • When reports reach Grey of a strange man raving about gold, he orders Jamie to accompany him as a translator, for the stranger was heard to have spoken both Gaelic and French. Grey has hopes the information will lead to the fabled Frenchman's gold, meant for Charles Stuart during the Rising, but Jamie's translation reveals (seemingly) incomprehensible gibberish.
  • Jamie escapes the prison, and a search ensues; he eventually returns voluntarily several days later.
  • March 7: Jamie attends his first meeting with Grey regarding matters with the prisoners.
  • April 2: Lord John writes to his brother about the Frenchman's gold, and Fraser's subsequent escape and return.
  • May 15: Jamie finally tells Lord John about why he escaped the prison, though only after Grey uses information about Jamie's family to blackmail him. Jamie's story does indeed involve a small treasure, of which Jamie's only proof is a large sapphire, which he had swallowed.
  • Jamie continues to meet with Lord John regularly, and aside from discussing the prisoners' concerns, they play chess and discuss literature.
  • June 18: Lord John puts his hand on Jamie's; Jamie rejects the advance, effectively destroying their odd half-friendship.
  • Jamie assumes the blame for a bit of tartan discovered in the prisoners' cell, and Lord John has no choice but to order a sentence of flogging.

1756

  • July: The prisoners at Ardsmuir are released and have their sentences commuted to indentured servitude in the American colonies – except for Jamie, who learns he is to serve his parole on an estate in England.
  • September: Jamie arrives at Helwater to serve as a groom for the Dunsany family.

1757

  • Geneva Dunsany blackmails Jamie into taking her virginity shortly before she will be forced to marry a much older man.

1758

  • Geneva gives birth to a son, and dies in childbed. Her husband, the Earl of Ellesmere, threatens to drop the newborn out of a window, and Jamie shoots the man, killing him, and saves the child.
  • Lady Dunsany asks Jamie if he would like his freedom, and he declines.

1764

  • July: Jamie makes the heart-wrenching decision to leave Helwater, once William's resemblance to himself becomes too noticeable.
  • September: Lord John tells Jamie he will marry Isobel Dunsany and become William's stepfather. Jamie offers his body to Lord John, who declines. Jamie kisses him.
  • Upon Jamie's return to Lallybroch, Jenny tries to persuade him into marrying again.
  • New Year's Eve: Jenny invites Laoghaire MacKenzie, who is now a young widow with two daughters, to Lallybroch, and Jamie and Laoghaire spend most of the night dancing with each other.

1765

  • In early 1765, Jamie marries Laoghaire and moves to her home at Balriggan. The marriage is a failure, and less than a year later, he leaves Laoghaire and moves to Edinburgh, where he starts printing and smuggling businesses.

1766

  • November: Claire, having gone through the stones at Craigh na Dun, travels from Inverness to Edinburgh, which is Jamie's last known location according to Roger MacKenzie's and Brianna's research.
  • Claire finds Jamie at his print shop in Carfax Close, and they reunite after twenty years apart.
  • Almost immediately, Claire discovers just how complex Jamie's life is: in addition to the printing, he is engaged in a smuggling operation, his partner in which is the madam of a brothel; he appears to be responsible for a drunken Chinese man and an errant nephew; and all the while is pursued by men who want him arrested or killed.
  • Jamie's print shop burns down and nearly takes Young Ian with it. After rescuing Young Ian, Jamie and the elder Ian Murray extract the story from the boy, who reveals that a one-eyed man had been seeking information about Jamie by inquiring after both Jamie's smuggling alias, Jamie Roy, as well as his true name, Fraser, then making his way to the print shop of "Alexander Malcolm".
  • Claire makes a house call to a Miss Margaret Campbell, at the behest of her brother, the Reverend Archibald Campbell. Nellie Cowden, hired as an abigail for Miss Campbell, tells Claire what she knows about the woman's tragic history.
  • Claire and Young Ian accompany Jamie and the smugglers to their rendezvous at the coast for a newly arrived shipment. The operation is foiled by an ambush of English Customs officers; meanwhile, one of these is discovered hanged in the woods.
  • Claire returns with Jamie and Young Ian to Lallybroch, and their reception is strained by the fact that Jamie knew about Young Ian's presence in Edinburgh and failed to reassure the boy's parents of his welfare.
  • The sudden arrival of Laoghaire MacKenzie with her daughters throws Claire's world into turmoil when she discovers that Jamie had married Laoghaire. She leaves Lallybroch, but is summoned back with news that Jamie had been shot and lay in fever, which would likely kill him. Claire uses some of the penicillin she brought with her from 1968 to cure Jamie's infection.
  • With the help of Ned Gowan the lawyer, Jamie's marriage to Laoghaire is declared invalid, and an arrangement is made in which Jamie will continue to support Laoghaire and her daughters, Marsali and Joan.
  • Faced with money troubles on several fronts, the Frasers and Murrays decide that they must visit the Silkies' Isle once more, and Claire learns about the treasure Jamie had found while in prison. The family had abstracted from the treasure several times in the past, with the elder Ian bringing one of his sons to make the swim from the coast to the tiny island where the treasure lay. It is determined that Young Ian shall make his first journey there.
  • While swimming out to the Silkies' Isle, Young Ian is kidnapped by an unknown ship.
  • December: Jamie and Claire travel to France to seek Jared Fraser's help in identifying the ship that took Young Ian. They learn that the ship may be called the Bruja, and discover what they can about its destination, finding passage to follow it to the West Indies aboard the Artemis.
  • Laoghaire's elder daughter, Marsali, joins the Artemis just as she is departing, and she and Fergus announce their marriage. Jamie objects immediately, but the ship is already underway.

1767

  • January: While Jamie is put out of commission by his debilitating seasickness, Claire learns from Fergus about the past attempts on Jamie's life, and the likelihood that one of the smugglers aboard the Artemis was a traitor.
  • Mr. Willoughby uses acupuncture to cure Jamie's seasickness.
  • Claire treats Duncan Innes for his digestive troubles, and seeks Mr. Willoughby's counsel regarding Innes' phantom pains in his missing arm.
  • Mr. Willoughby captures a pelican, whom he names Ping An and trains to catch fish for him. He also tells the tale of how he came to leave China and arrive in Edinburgh.
  • February 3: The Artemis meets with the Porpoise, a British man-of-war that is plagued by disease. Captain Thomas Leonard requests the assistance of a surgeon. Claire goes aboard the Porpoise, which soon departs from the Artemis without Claire's or Jamie's knowledge or permission.
  • Claire works doggedly to slow the spread of disease, and reflects on the futility of her efforts. She shares a moment of respite with a special passenger, the new governor of Jamaica.
  • After learning that one of the Porpoise's crew, a man called Harry Tompkins, was the same man whom Ian followed to the print shop in Edinburgh, Claire realizes that Jamie faces arrest and even execution once they reach land, and she manages to escape by jumping overboard and drifting to the shore of Hispaniola.
  • Claire meets a naturalist called Lawrence Stern and a disgraced priest named Father Fogden, as well as a quietly hostile woman called Mamacita and several animals.
  • Claire rejoins Jamie, Fergus, and the rest of the crew of the Artemis, which has run aground on Hispaniola. Fergus and Marsali get married on the beach.
  • April 1-2:[1] On Barbados, the Artemis acquires ten cubic tons of bat guano for trading, and Claire finds herself the accidental owner of a slave.
  • At sea, the Artemis is attacked by pirates. Claire suffers a deep wound on her arm, slashed by a cutlass, and suffers a fever afterwards. She uses some of her precious penicillin to fight the infection.
  • The Artemis puts ashore on Jamaica, and Ishmael, a man from the pirate ship, leaves with Temeraire, the slave bought on Barbados. Jamie and Claire make their way to Jared's plantation, Blue Mountain House, ten miles from Kingston. They prepare to attend the governor's reception.
  • At the governor's mansion, Claire sees Jamie leave the main event to speak privately with Lord John Grey, and is shocked to see the latter's look of longing toward Jamie as they embrace.
  • A lady is murdered in the retiring room, and Mr. Willoughby is a prime suspect. While Jamie is away being questioned, Claire demands that Lord John explain how he knows Jamie, and about William.
  • Jamie and Claire visit Rose Hall, and are surprised to find that Mistress Abernathy is an old acquaintance. They do what they can to search for Young Ian, but find no sign of him.
  • Returning later with backup, Jamie and the other men search for Ian, while Claire goes into Rose Hall manor and finds the Reverend Archibald Campbell, who confronts her about Jamie's role in his sister's ordeal during the Rising. He also tells Claire about a prophecy made by the Brahan Seer regarding the Frasers of Lovat. Mr. Willoughby/Yi Tien Cho makes a sudden appearance, and accuses Campbell of murdering Mina Alcott at the governor's reception, as well as the other women of Edinburgh killed by "The Fiend". Yi Tien Cho kills the reverend, and admits he was the one that betrayed Jamie to Sir Percival Turner.
  • Claire looks for Jamie and finds a crocodile, along with Ishmael and the other escaped slaves of the island gathering for some kind of ceremony. Margaret Campbell is among them, and she acts as a kind of oracle, speaking in the voices of those unseen. Margaret speaks to Claire, joined by Jamie, in the voice of their daughter, Brianna.
  • With information from Ishmael, Jamie and Claire leave for Hispaniola to seek out a cave called Abandawe, where Geillis has allegedly taken Ian. They find the boy, and Claire kills Geillis in the struggle to save him, though she is deeply unnerved by the sound of the time passage in the cave.
  • Sighting the Porpoise yet again on their trail, the Frasers leave with their companions on the governor's pinnace, but the little boat is no match for the Porpoise's speed, nor yet for the approaching hurricane. The Porpoise is decimated by the violent sea, killing all hands, and the topmast of the pinnace eventually succumbs as well. Claire is knocked overboard and Jamie goes into the water after her. They eventually float ashore and take refuge with a family, only to discover the storm has swept them all the way from the Caribbean to the coast of the Royal Colony of Georgia.

1968[]

  • May 2: Roger MacKenzie reveals what he has discovered about Jamie's fate – that is, Roger believes he has found evidence that Jamie did not die at Culloden – and Claire gives him permission to continue searching for Jamie in the historical record.
  • June 2: In the wee hours of the morning, Claire finds a document placing Jamie at Ardsmuir Prison.
  • August: Claire, Roger and Brianna visit Loch Ness
  • September: Claire returns to Boston and resigns her position at the hospital, visits Joe Abernathy, settles her accounts for Brianna with regard to her money and the house in Furey Street, and takes her leave of the place, her memories of life with Frank, and the luxuries of the twentieth century.
  • October: Claire returns to Scotland and makes preparations to go through the stones at Craigh na Dun. She leaves on the eve of Samhain, October 31.

Outlander: Season Three[]

Voyager was adapted for the third season of the Outlander television series, which originally aired starting September 2017. It consisted of thirteen episodes.

Book Covers[]



External Resources[]

  • Point of view guide – A chapter-by-chapter breakdown of character points of view. Includes dates for chapters when noted.

References[]

  1. Drums of Autumn, chapter 40.

See also[]

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