The book starts with the adventurous wealthy Lord Alan Linlay. In Constantinople he met his long lost nephew who was one of four children by his murdered brother-in-law, the Consul Lord Georg Gleneagle whose family was sold into slavery. The first traces were discovered in a harem where the young daughter had just been sold. The search then spreads over three continents. The orient, the wild west of America and the Siberian steppes of Russia, where they have experienced heights and suffered extreme pain and humiliation. Each find was connected with extraordinary adventures.