In the kingdom of Aquilonia, a year of peace for King Conan and his new queen Zenobia is broken when the latter is abducted by a demon.

Conan learns from the wizard, Pelias of Koth, that an eastern sorcerer, Yah Chieng of Khitai, is responsible, and begins a quest to recover her without realizing that the fate of the world, as well as Aquilonia, rests on the outcome of the contest.

"[1] Critic Don D'Ammassa writes that there are "[s]ome clumsy plot devices in this one but it does capture most of the flavor of Howard's work.

Ward Brown noted that "Under a commonly-held theory, Conan manifested Howard's idealized self-image, the larger-than-life hero he would have liked to be in an impossibly perfect world.

Crom's reason for making a big exception and directly intervening to save Conan in this case is not explicated.