It is the year 524BC, and the Assyrian king, Shalmaneser V, is enraged when he finds out that Hoshea, King of Israel, one of his vassal states, is seeking the help of Egypt in rebelling against him. Swiftly gathering his army, he swoops down from the north and crushes the rebellious state, taking Hoshea captive and deporting the surviving Israelites throughout the eastern areas of the Assyrian Empire. The story then moves forward to Calcutta, in India, in the year 1755, where young Alec Cowie, now a Captain in the militia of the Honourable East India Company, arrives back from a recent assignment to the Mughal Emperor in Delhi. (see Alec Cowie and the Delhi Assignment). He finds himself seconded to the British Intelligence Service and directed to lead a new mission to Abdul Shah Durrani, the new king of Afghanistan, seeking passage of the Companys goods through the Khyber Pass to the Silk Road. Accompanied by his old friend Harry Arburthnot, he travels up the Indus valley and through the Bolan Pass to Kandahar, where he encounters a beautiful Jewish girl with a mission of her own; to return the powerful Sword of Persia to Shah Durrani with the prophesy that goes with it. Continually harassed by the Russians, Jesuits and rebellious Afghans themselves, Alec and Harry finally complete their mission to Cabool, and stage a thrilling escape through the Khyber Pass back into India.