This adventure story is also the biography of Heinrich Harrer, already a famous mountaineer and Olympic ski champion when he was caught by the outbreak of the World War II while climbing in the Himalayas.;Being an Austrian he was interned in India but succeeded in escaping into Tibet. After a series of experiences in a country never before crossed by a Westerner he reached the forbidden city of Lhasa. He stayed there for seven years, learned the language and acquired an understanding of Tibet and the Tibetans.;He became the friend and tutor of the young Dalai Lama and finally accompanied him into India when he was put to flight by the Red Chinese invasion.;As a mountaineer Heinrich Harrer was a member of the party which successfully ascended the North Wall of the Eiger in 1938.

Mary's own story is here revealed and given value in its own right, not merely as 'the wife of ...' or 'the mother of ...'. This remarkable woman deserves her own place in history. Mary Clegg was a spirited young woman from a liberal, non-conformist background in the East Midlands, the daughter of a head teacher and pioneering educationalist. He believed not just in the value of a broad education, but also in the importance of a stimulating learning environment. When Mary married one of her father's former teaching staff, effectively relinquishing the chance of an independent career for herself, she focused on supporting her husband's career and nurturing her three sons. However, Mary's innate vitality could not be constrained by 'domestic tasks' alone. As war loomed again during the 1930s Mary's humanitarian instincts were given full rein as she quite literally rescued and saved young lives, innocent victims of warped political ideologies in Europe.

Follows the religious and romantic adventures of its hero, a young Oxford man, who, living in retirement with his mother in the country, decides to become an evangelist, although mainly from the lack of any other more interesting occupation.