The second novel in The Shifting Sands series picks up the story as Lord Wolfe and Carlotta leave Tsingtao, having concluded a treaty with the Japanese, and head for Seoul in the Kingdom of Korea.
Travelling across the Pacific, they enter the vast British North American colonies and traverse the expanse by train, to the East coast where interesting news awaits. An Atlantic liner awaits, and they make a welcome return to Harcourt Hall after so many months away.
As Carlotta begins to assert her independence, and receives a gift of alpacas from the former governor of the Argentine, Lord Woife takes decisions on how to invest a proportion of their fortune, including in the rising automobile industry. The publication of Carlotta's diary of the Tsingtao negotiations is a sensation that brings unwelcome attention, and not long after an unexpected confrontation that shatters the usual peace of Monksbury.
At the same time, the machinery of foreign diplomacy, occurring behind the scenes, and behind the backs of the politicians, increasingly draws Lord Wolfe into Russian affairs. Do they really have to travel to Saint Petersburg? What of the lives they are making back home?