The author of this unusual and exciting book Major Phelps Hodges, was an officer attached to 'Britmis' (Short for 'British Mission') the force of some 40,000 soldiers and sailors sent to various Russia ports in the wake of the Russian revolution in order to try and stem the 'Bolshevik menace' and if possible overthrow the regime in support of 'White' anti-Bolshevik forces. Hodges was attached to the force in Siberia, the vast area ruled by Admiral Kolchk, one of the most successful White commanders, who was based on his primitive provisional Government in the town of Omsk. After several months of occupying the Trans-SIberian railway, the Reds advanced, the Whites retreated, Kolchak's regime collapsed and Phelps and his companions, to escape being trapped, fled via the only route still open to them - south across the desolate Gobi desert to China. After joining a nomadic caravanserai, they reached safety in Shanghai - and Hodges survived to tell this enthralling tale.