In 1903 Simon Fonthill is drawn from relative quiet in India into Lord Curzon’s determination to force diplomatic access to Tibet. He joins the British mission advancing across the Himalayan passes with Alice reporting on the expedition and Jenkins once again at his side. Superior firepower does not make the journey safe: altitude, bitter weather, Tibetan resistance and divided motives within the invading force become more dangerous when Alice is captured and Fonthill uncovers betrayal close to the mission.
The historical framework is the Younghusband Expedition of 1903–1904, launched under Viceroy George Curzon amid British fears of Russian influence in Tibet. Colonel Francis Younghusband’s mission became a military invasion, culminating in the advance to Lhasa and an unequal convention imposed on Tibetan authorities after the Dalai Lama fled. The novel uses that imbalance of weapons and power directly, allowing Alice’s reporting to question the assumptions behind an expedition officially presented as diplomacy.
