This book is largely composed from the diaries of John Weston Brooke who was murdered in Lolo Land in December 1908. Lieut. Brooke made two journeys through China and Tibet, starting out on the first from Shanghai in August, 1906 and returning in October of the following year having crossed Tibet. On his second journey he was joined by C.H. Meares (who went on to accompany Captain Scott on the British Antarctic Expedition) and the two men spent a year travelling through Western Sechuan and Eastern Tibet until Christmas Eve of 1908 when Brooke was murdered.