This work tells the story of how in 1870, four travellers in Dilessi Greece, three British and one Italian, were kidnapped by a gang of bandits and held for ransom. The negotiations were botched and eventually the four were murdered. The episode severely tested the relations of the young Greek state with Britain, under Gladstone at the time, and a country that had done much to help it gain its independence from the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The story throws light upon Greece and British diplomacy. One chapter of the book, "Truth and Ethnic Truth", caused some offence in Athens at the time but has since been considered as an analysis of the modern Greek mind. The book was written in 1961.