The scene opens in Nice in 1947 where an extraordinary young Chinaman named Cheng, assisted by Mark Humberstone, the son of a great American inventor, has set up an International Bureau of Espionage, with an observatory and the most powerful wireless station in the world. Humberstone's father died, leaving the new powers which he had created in the hands of seven men, one of them his son, all pledged never to make use of these powers except for the holy purpose of proving to the world, by illustration, that war between the nations is no longer a possible enterprise.

Mark wanted to end war, but Cheng wanted also to restore his own country to its former power and to return Russia to monarchical government. In the meantime, in London, a so-called Triumvirate, employed by the Dictator of Russia, plotted Cheng's death. The Bureau's plans were ambitious and amazing. To accomplish these plans Mark and Cheng were prepared to defy all laws and to overcome all obstacles.