This set of novel owes much to the courses at McGill University (Montreal, Canada) in 1958 and 1960 taught by Mohammad Rasjidi and John Alden Williams where the history of the Middle East covered in this series was originally imparted to me through the lectures, the assigned readings and the discussion session these scholars supervised.

Amelia Caruthers and Marty Mintz, now both senior international correspondents, are assigned to follow the British drive to defeat the Ottomans in the Egypt-Palestine region. They do it on foot, trains, trucks, horses, and camels traversing the area to cover key battles, important political meetings and the advances and retreats of the armies locked in struggle for dominance of the area.

Two young people are recruited into the news-gathering enterprise in Egypt by an agent for a major European newspaper, called the Tribune. Marty Mintz is a reporter and Amelia Caruthers is a photographer.