In the evening at the Reform Club, Fogg, Flanagan, Fallentin, and Sullivan are talking about a recent bank robbery. While discussing the whereabouts of the thief, Fogg says one can get around the world in 80 days. Others think Fogg is not considering the unexpected; Fogg accepts a wager for £20000, half of his total fortune, from his fellow club members to complete such a journey within this time period.

With Passepartout accompanying him, Fogg departs from London by train at 8:45 p.m. that same evening. They reach Brindisi, Italy by train and then Suez, Egypt by the Mongolia ship across the Mediterranean Sea.

While disembarking in Bombay, they are watched by detective Fix, a Scotland Yard policeman, who has been dispatched from London in search of a bank robber. Since Fogg fits the vague description Scotland Yard was given of the robber, Detective Fix mistakes Fogg for the criminal. Fix boards the same steamer following Fogg and becomes acquainted with Passepartout without revealing his purpose.

On the train to Calcutta, Phileas Fogg finds out that the Trans-Indian railroad is 50 miles short of completion between Kholby and Allahabad. Fogg purchases an elephant named is Kiouni for £2,000, hires a guide, and starts toward Allahabad.

On their way they come across a procession in which a young Indian woman, Aouda, is to undergo sati because the rajah of Bundelcund, her husband, has died. Since she is drugged with opium and hemp and is obviously not going voluntarily, the travellers decide to rescue her. They follow the procession to the site, where Passepartout takes the place of Aouda's deceased husband on the funeral pyre. During the ceremony, he rises from the pyre, scaring off the priests, and carries Aouda away.

At Calcutta, moments before leaving, a police officer approaches them and takes them to a jail. However, Fogg pays a £2,000 bond for himself and Passepartout and they leave to board the SS Rangoon steam-ship for Hong Kong, with a day's stopover in Singapore. Due to a storm, they get to Hong Kong twenty-four hours late. Detective Fix follows them onto the Rangoon in hopes of arresting Fogg in Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, it turns out that Aouda's distant relative, in whose care they had been planning to leave her, has moved to Holland, so they decide to take her with them to Europe. In Hong Kong, Passepartout finds that the steamer, the Carnatic to San Francisco has been delayed and will depart in the evening. To prevent Passepartout from informing his master, Fix gets Passepartout drunk and drugs him in an opium den. Passepartout still manages to catch the steamer to Yokohama. However, the steamer leaves without Fogg. Fogg discovers that he missed his connection. He searches for a vessel that will take him to Yokohama, finding a pilot boat, the Tankadere, that takes him and Aouda to Shanghai, where they catch the General Grant, the paddle-steamer to Yokohama.

In Yokohama, Fogg searches for Passepartout, believing that he arrived there on the Carnatic as originally planned. They find him in a circus, trying to earn the fare for his homeward journey. Reunited, the four continues across the Pacific to San Francisco. Fix promises Passepartout that now, having left British soil, he will no longer try to delay Fogg's journey, but instead support him in getting back to Britain, so he can arrest Fogg in Britain itself.

They board a transcontinental train to New York, encountering a number of obstacles along the way: a massive herd of bison crossing the tracks, a failing suspension bridge, and a band of Sioux warriors ambushing the train. After uncoupling the locomotive from the carriages, Passepartout is kidnapped by the Indians, but Fogg rescues him after American soldiers volunteer to help. They continue by a wind-powered sledge to Omaha, where they get a train to New York.

In New York, having missed the ship to China, Fogg looks for alternative transport. He finds a steamboat, the Henrietta, destined for Bordeaux, France. He then bribes the crew to mutiny and make course for Liverpool. Against hurricane winds and going on full steam, the boat runs out of fuel after a few days. Fogg buys the boat from the captain and has the crew burn all the wooden parts to keep up the steam. The companions arrive at Queenstown, Ireland, take the train to Dublin and then a ferry to Liverpool, still in time to reach London before the deadline.

Once on English soil, Fix produces a warrant and arrests Fogg. A short time later, comes to know that the actual robber had been caught three days earlier in Edinburgh. However, Fogg has missed the train and arrives in London five minutes late at 8:50 P.M., certain he has lost the wager. The following day, Fogg apologises to Aouda for bringing her with him, since he now has to live in poverty and cannot support her. Aouda confesses that she loves him and asks him to marry her. As Passepartout notifies a minister, he learns that he is mistaken in the date – it is not 22 December, but instead 21 December.

Because the party had travelled eastward, their days were shortened by four minutes for each of the 360 degrees of longitude they crossed. Thus Fogg unknowingly gained twenty-four hours throughout his trip. On the night of Saturday, December 21st, Fogg’s friends wait in the Reform Club and are convinced that he has lost the wager. Finally, three seconds before the agreed time of 8:45 P.M., Fogg enters the saloon followed by an excited crowd and calmly states “Here I am, gentleman!” Two days later, on Monday, Fogg and Aouda are married.