Following the end of the First World War Richard Hannay,the hero of lohn Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps,Greenmantle and Mr Standfast,has retired to the Cotswolds with his wife and young son. There,news comes to him of three kidnappings and a plot of political and financial magnitude that would shake the world.

Hannay abandons his Gloucestershire idyll to counter the threat,and the adventure takes him from the frenetic dance-halls and high society of 1920's London to a gripping climax in the wild Scottish Highlands where he meets his most formidable enemy.

On your last birthday a well-meaning godfather presented you with a volume of mine,since you had been heard on occasion to express approval of my works.The book dealt with a somewhat arid branch of historical research,and it did not please you.You wrote to me,I remember,complaining that I had 'let you down',and summoning me,as I valued your respect,to 'pull myself together'.In particular you demanded to hear more of the doings of Richard Hannay,a gentleman for whom you professed a liking.I,too,have a liking for Sir Richard,and when I met him the other day (he is now a country neighbour) I observed that his left hand had been considerably mauled,an injury which I knew bad not been due to the war.He was so good as to tell me the tale of an unpleasant business in which he had.recently been engaged,and to give me permission to retell it for your benefit.Sir Richard took a modest pride in the affair,because from first to last it had been a pure contest of wits,without recourse to those more obvious methods of strife with which he is familiar.So I herewith present it to you,in the hope that in the eyes of you and your friends it may atone for certain other writings of mine with which you have been afflicted by those in authority.

1 Doctor Greenslade Theorizes

2 I Hear of the Three Hostages

3 Researches in the Subconscious

4 I Make the Acquaintance of a Popular Man

5 The Thursday Club

6 The House in Gospel Oak

7 Some Experiences of a Disciple

8 The Blind Spinner

9 I am Introduced to Strong Magic

10 Confidences at a Wayside Inn

11 How a German Engineer Found Strange Fishing

12 I Return to Servitude

13 I Visit the Fields of Eden

14 Sir Archibald Roylance Puts His Foot In It

15 How a French Nobleman Discovered Fear

16 Our Time is Narrowed

17 The District-Visitor in Palmyra Square

18 The Night of the First of June

19 The Night of the First of June-later

20 Machray

21 How I Stalked Wilder Game than Deer