Hulda, the daughter of an innkeeper in the Norwegian countryside, is engaged to Ole, a fisherman. When Ole fails to return, Hulda fears him dead, until she receives a message that he has scribbled on the back of a lottery ticket. Newspapers broadcast the story, fueling excitement and speculation ahead of the lottery drawing.

The novel, based in part on the Verne’s travel through Scandinavia in 1861, belongs to the collection Voyages Extraordinaires which contains some of his best-known works, like Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas and Around the World in Eighty Days . Un Billet de Loterie appeared first in installments in the magazine Magasin d’Éducation et de Récréation , followed immediately by a book edition published by Hetzel.