Paul Nazaroff was the ringleader of a desperate plot to overthrow the Bolsheviks in Central Asia in 1918. He was betrayed to the Secret Police, who declared him "the most dangerous counter-revolutionary at large in the Tashkent region."

Thus began his extraordinary catalogue of adventures, "a long and distant odyssey which would take me right across Central Asia . . . over the Himalayas to the plains of Hindustan." As he fled from Lenin's men, he was aided by the indigenous peoples of the region, the Kirghiz and the Sarts, and for months he was forced to live the life of a hunted animal.

Peter Hopkirk has contributed a fascinating introduction to this thrilling tale of espionage and survival against all odds, as well as an epilogue which reveals Nazaroff's later fortunes.