It combines a romantic drama with a military adventure story, set against the contemporary background of British operations against a rebellion in the kingdom of Iraq.

After spending three years in under-cover activities in the region, Lieutenant Brent, a British officer, has fallen under suspicion of treacherous dealings with the enemy but has been cleared by a military tribunal.

The play from which the film was adapted was La Maison cernée by Pierre Frondaie, written in 1919 and staged in Paris soon afterwards; it was a romantic melodrama set in Palestine during World War I. L'Herbier revised the plot, renamed the characters, and relocated the story to Iraq in 1935, where the recently independent kingdom was still under British influence, with British troops stationed in the country.

Another regular collaborator with the director was the costume designer Jacques Manuel, who created several elegant gowns to be worn by the leading actress Kate de Nagy (introducing an element of luxury and glamour in the stark setting of an army garrison in the desert).

It was also noted that the film held echoes of another contemporary conflict in the developing Abyssinia crisis and its implications for British control of the Suez Canal zone.