Told mainly through official documents, letters and memoirs, including some from Sir Francis Humphrys, British minister in Kabul based at the British legation in 1928, the book pieces together the stories of the 84 air missions that successfully airlifted 586 civilians and officials from Kabul between 23 December 1928 and 25 February 1929, in what has been described by David Jordan, reader in defence studies at King's College, as the first significant use of airpower in an insurgency campaign.

Sir William Hildred noted it to be a well documented record of one of the Royal Air Force's historical landmarks, and James Stourton described it as a book to be celebrated.

[4] Baker subsequently wrote a biography of her father titled From Biplane To Spitfire: The Life of Air Chief Marshal Sir Geoffrey Salmond (2004).

One common lesson he draws from all three airlifts is that; "it [UK] must keep in being not only adequate air transport capacity for its own needs but, and here lies the rub, see to it that there is sufficient flexibility in their [aircraft] use for them to be diverted from the normal task to wherever in the world these 'mercy missions' call for their presence".

The next few chapters outline the make-up of the North West Frontier, and the infuriations for the Mullahs caused by the King of Afghanistan, Amanullah's series of political changes intended to bring about a more European way of life in 1928.

By early-December, political tension in Afghanistan caused Humphrys to have concern, and fearing a massacre, he sent Salmond a message requesting the evacuation of all civilians from the Legation.

According to the authors, it was possibly the memory of the 1842 retreat from Kabul during winter with temperatures reaching as low as -17 °C that prompted Humphrys to request that the evacuation take place by air.

[10] Sir William Hildred in The Aeronautical Journal called it a "fascinating" account of one of the Airforce's historical landmarks with its "suicidal flights" now well documented in Baker's book.