Written almost twenty years before Ian Fleming's Goldfinger, these are the adventures - romantic, pugilistic, and automotive - of the dashing, unpredictable, and outright comic Ivan Gorchev and his irascible private secretary, Mr Vanek. When the fearless(also reckless, and possibly downright feckless) Gorchev becomes unwittingly embroiled in a struggle between two ex-legionnaires and the Master's determined criminal gang to gain possession of a car made almost entirely of gold in an effort to decide the fate of a small African country, anything becomes possible. Even Gorchev's falling in love and as a result joining the Foreign Legion. And adopting an ageing lion. Not to mention winning the Nobel Prize for Physics.