In this, his final adventure, Buchan's hero Richard Hannay becomes embroiled in one of the most hazardous escapades of his life. Two men are honour bound to help the tormented Valdemar Haraldsen, and a third decides to mastermind the whole affair out of a sheer love of adventure and a dislike of villains. A long-forgotten promise made by Richard Hannay finds him honor-bound to resolve a violent vendetta in which the lives of a young father and his daughter are in danger from unscrupulous and desperate men.