Richard Hatteras, on holiday in Sydney, rescues a lovely young woman in distress, the start of a series of events that sees him falling in love and becoming ever more entangled in the machinations of the shadowy Doctor Nikola, villain, gentleman, and occult adventurer, who will stop at nothing to steal his prize. Boothby's Nikola may be the world's first modern super villain: he is a master of hypnotism and mind control, a telepathic adept, as well as an astral projectionist.