The setting is modern India, dark, brooding, and mysterious-a land of legend and magic. Among the characters of the story are: Wu Tu, the Eurasian madam of a Bombay "house of pleasure" and member of an international underworld gang; Zaman Ali, an Afghan adventurer; Taron Ling, a practitioner of Oriental magic; Brigadier-General Frensham, a reputed crank, who vanishes without a trace; Henrietta, his charming daughter; and Blair Warrender, a police officer whose task it is to find Frensham. As Warrender sets out on his quest, the principal scene becomes the ruined keep of Gaglajung in Rajputa, in whose subterranean caverns is locked a mystery of mysteries. Why, how, and whither did the Brigadier-General vanish?
This is the question which keeps the reader in a constant state of suspense. Here is intrigue, murder and counterplotting as the action mounts to a tremendous climax. And here is a passionate love story -- not between adolescents, to whom love might be a mere passing emotion, but between a man and a woman to whom it means something fine, strong, and abiding.