The Eye of the Storm is a legendary diamond, said to bring its owner control of India. Now, bandits have stolen it on its way across the border from the ruins of the Czar's empire, with a party of Bolshevik fanatics in hot pursuit. The only way to prevent a war is to get the diamond back and Sir Oswald Masterman of the Imperial intelligence service knows the right man to do it - Captain John Caspasian of the Twelfth Gurkhas. Rebellious, insubordinate and astonishingly effective, Caspasian is glad to be off desk duty and back in action. With his hand-picked assistant, Gurkha serveant Ganga Limbu, and a hand-picked arsenal of the latest automatic weapons, Caspasian sets off for Beshandu disguised as the escort for a routine tribal council.