This is a superb sweeping romantic adventure story of how Alan Quatermain, hero of fourteen of Rider H Haggard's books, met, fell in love with and married his first wife. It is related from the perspective of old age and is set against the time of the Great Trek in the 1830s. The villains of the piece are truly villainous, Dingaan a portly traitorous despotic Zulu chief, and a Portuguese killer who constantly plots to kill our hero and steal his wife.

This book is written with histrionic flair typical of the Victorian era, gripping battles combined with scenes of fervent emotion. Bigotry and hatred filter through the story, having (as they do even now) a terrible effect on all the characters who harboured such prejudices.