Treasure Island is one of the most famous adventure books in all of literature, and Robert Louis Stevenson is one of the most famous adventure writers.
A young boy named Jim Hawkins lives with his parents at their inn, "The Admiral Benbow" near Bristol, England in the eighteenth century. When a pirate named Billy Bones takes up residence in the inn, Jim's life is changed forever. Upon Bones's death, Jim finds a secret map in his mysterious treasure chest, and takes it to his friends Dr. Livesey and Squire Trelawney; they decide at once to set off in pursuit of the treasure, which belonged to the legendary pirate Captain Flint.
But a group of Flint's former pirates, led by the big bad ugly Long John Silver, are also searching for the treasure map. Thanks to Silver's cheekiness, the squire hires the pirates as the crew of his new ship; "The Hispaniola".
On the day the ship reaches Treasure Island, Jim hides in an apple barrel and overhears Silver revealing his plan to another sailor. He tells his friends, and while he sneaks onto the island to observe the pirates at work, they fight their way to temporary safety in a stockade on the island. Exploring, Jim meets a castaway named Ben Gunn who has lived alone on the island for three years, then rejoins his friends at the stockade.
Silver appears the next morning to try to negotiate a truce; the captain refuses, and the pirates attack the stockade. Jim's friends win the battle, but the captain is wounded. Jim sneaks away from the stockade that night, finds Ben Gunn's handmade ship, and sails it out to the Hispaniola, which he manages to single-handedly steal, killing a bloodthirsty pirate named Israel Hands.
Jim returns to the stockade late that night, and sneaks inside--but his friends are gone, and he finds himself a prisoner of the pirates. A buccaneer named George Merry tries to depose Silver, but the pirate captain is victorious, and tells Jim half-truthfully that he is now on the squire's side: Silver is losing control of the pirates, and attempting to gain favor with both sides to ensure his safety at the end of the adventure.