The story of an intelligent, independent young British woman who sets out around the world in search of adventure. She finds plenty as she trips-up con-men, outsmarts Arabs, kills a tiger and, of course, saves the man she loves. Allen is a great writer so it's not nearly as trite as it may sound. It has humor and a couple of stinging barbs at the condescending attitude that was no doubt prevalent in those heady days of Victoria's global empire. Allen has taken the form heroic epic and turned it around, twice. First by making it modern, second by making the hero a heroine, and a mighty feisty one at that. But he retains the geographic wandering, episodic structure, clearly-defined good and bad, and an invincible and nearly infallible protagonist. The heroine is worthy of note, and respect. Rarely at a loss for what to do or say, Miss Cayley is perhaps at her best turning aside potential suitors and taming tough old ladies. Everything that happens is more or less realistic.