Summary of The Heart of Darkness The novel opens at sunset on the deck of a cruising yawl, the Nellie, which at anchor on the Thames. Five men are lying back to rest and mediate, waiting for the tide to turn. One of them, Charles Marlow, thinks aloud about ancient England at the time when the conquering Romans came seeking wealth and power. He pauses, and then begins to tell of a trip to the Congo he made as a young man. First, he describes how he came to make the trip. Out of a job and fascinated by Africa for a long time, he enlisted the help of an n influential aunt who was able to secure him a position as a river steamboat captain. Marlow then goes on to tell the st