Godfrey Bullen, the son of an English trader, is sent by his father to Russia to work in their firm in St. Petersburg. He unknowingly gets caught up in a Nihilist plot and gets arrested and sentenced for life in the prisons of Siberia. By pluck and genius, he manages the impossible and escapes from his captivity and overcomes the difficulties of his journey to rejoin his family in England. - Summary by Grace Silvey