From mobygames.com:

A young couple falls through a hole while investigating a cavern on the Isola island. Landing on the western shore they discover several children, abandoned by their elders. The couple decide to take care of them, while trying to unravel the mystery of their origin.

Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children is the sequel to Virtual Villagers: A New Home. Both are real-time strategy games that play like a cross between a virtual pet simulator and the Settlers games. Like in the first game, interaction with the environment is made by dragging and dropping the autonomous characters on objects and places. While holding them over a part of the screen, a description of what they see is displayed on the bottom of the screen.

Some individuals have quirks and abilities of their own that are displayed on the villager detail screen, along with other statistics like their health and their developing skills (farming, building, research, healing and parenting).

The game advances when the members of the tribe solve puzzles, and certain milestones are reached. Randomly, a message pops up presenting a situation and offering options that affect the game in some way.

There are several activities that the villagers need to perform so that the tribe can thrive: collecting food, constructing buildings, researching new technologies, increasing the population by delivering babies, etc. Performing these activities boost the associated skill and define the villager profession. Children can't work or swim until they are 14 years old, and can only procreate when they became adults at the age of 18, but they can collect some random objects like seashells and butterflies. These objects add to the tech points used to buy technology. Advances in technology allow the villagers to perform more actions.

The game is played in real-time, and progress is saved automatically when the player exits. When the game is restarted, it calculates the time passed and adjusts the tribe situation accordingly.