Girija Krishnan, a bookkeeper at a rubber plantation in Malaya, has one ambition in life: to found and establish a local bus company and transport system.

The local authorities kill a gang of Communist terrorists near the plantation, and Girija realizes from the condition of their guns that their cache of weapons must be somewhere nearby.

When Girija sells the weapons to the Tan family, they realize that in order to re-sell them safely for profit, they need to find a respectable European or American foreigner who can take legal responsibility for the transfer of funds from the eventual buyer.

A taxi-driver in Singapore called Khoo Ah Au ("Jimmy" to English-speaking tourists) recruits the Nilsens with a promise of a handsome fee for signing the transfers of inventory and money.

[1] New York Times reviewer James M. Cain, also a thriller-writer in his own right, described the book as "... a picture of Southeast Asia, in all its color and the savagery of its current turmoil ... this is tops, and gets down to bedrock.