The Rescue, A Romance of the Shallows is one of Joseph Conrad's works contained in The Lingard Trilogy, a group of novels based on Conrad's experience as mate on the steamer Vidar. Although it was the last of the three novels to be published, after Almayer's Folly (1895) and An Outcast of the Islands (1896), the events related in the novel precede those. The story follows Captain Tom Lingard, the recurring protagonist of The Lingard Trilogy, who was on his way to help a native friend regain his land when he falls in love with a married woman whose yacht he saves from foundering.

During a civil war between native tribes, an English yacht runs aground in the Malay straits. Captain Tim Wingard offers help, then sees a woman on board. She captivates him, and this captivation wrecks all his hopes and leads to the failure of the cause to which he is bound.

Sailing towards one of the islands of the Eastern Archipelago where his friend Hassim awaits help to regain his kingdom, Captain Tom Lingard is called to rescue an English yacht stranded on a sandbank. On board is beautiful Mrs. Travers, a woman from a wholly different world, but with a spirited independence that matches Lingard's own. In this story of love and choice, Lingard emerges alongside Willems and Mister Kurtz as one of Conrad's finest creations.