In 1920, Eve Tozer, the attractive daughter of an American tycoon with huge trading interests in China, disembarked from a P. and O. liner at Tilbury. Hardly had she checked into the Savoy when a mysterious Oriental was announced.  Her father, who she believed to be safe and sound in Shanghai had been kidnapped by a warlord. The ransom demanded was a priceless statuette Eve had in her possession.  The closing date  for the hand-over is eighteen days – and even the fastest liner sailing on the next day will not get her back to China in time. The only hope is to fly – in a day before airlines and airports.  Eve, herself a qualified pilot, found a couple of ex-R.F.C. pilots on their uppers –  they bought and equipped three Bristol two-seaters, evaded trouble in France and ran into it in Germany. Historical personages – Mao Tse Tung and Mustafa Kemal – play a part as do wild and strange characters from the Balkans, Waziristan and India.