By the end of the 19th century, Switzerland is a favored travel destination for the fashionable English upper class. Half of London is in Sils Maria and St. Moritz. In the midst of it all is Ethel Tweedie. However, the 24-year-old finds the Alps too boring for the long term. She takes a friend's joking suggestion to travel "to the ends of the earth" seriously. On July 31, 1886, she sets off with her brother and a group of young people on a ship from the Icelandic Steamship Company to Iceland. It's an adventurous undertaking! For this Iceland is considered an inhospitable terra incognita. Dressed in a Victorian serge dress and a thick fur coat, she rides across the island like the men (not side-saddle - what an affront to good manners!). She meets local writers and philosophers, as well as ordinary people.