Here is a novel of Russia under Stalin, and in the course of a thrilling story we learn of the desperate hazards which beset the traveller entering the Soviet Republic upon a secret mission and endeavouring to recross the frontier without official papers.

In the epicurean Duc de Richleau, the Jewish financier Simon Aron and the wealthy young American Rex Van Ryn, a modern trinity of devoted friends has been created whose audacious exploits may well compare with those of Dumas' famous Musketeers.