Sara Norton had always fallen in love badly. This time she was determined that her romance was going to work out. Of course, she didn't know much about Dave Fillery—who his family was or where he got his money—but such things didn't seem to matter when she got the chance to combine a photography assignment and a vacation with Dave in Afghanistan.

The attractive young couple admired the sights around Kabul and then moved on to Herat to pick up a car whose owner wanted it driven back to England. Their first stop would be the holy city of Mashad in Persia. But then they got into trouble with the Iranian police.

A primitive, opium-growing Afghan tribe led by a wily old khan who punishes informers by having their tongues cut out, a group of unscrupulous international businessmen, a British diplomat with a lusty wife, a darkly handsome police officer, a kidnapping, gun battles, and a sandstorm are some of the elements in a fast-moving story that takes place against the exotic background of Afghanistan and Persia.