This book is about the authoras road journey across Afghanistan undertaken in 1969 when the country was a tourist resort for European and American holiday-makers. He talks about his mingling and friendships with the locals and their folkways, manners and mores, weaving his stories with Afghan history, background and interesting, sometimes-amusing episodes of behavior of their kings, tribal chiefs and mullahs. His description of the character of Afghan tribes is aptly written in the following words: aThey fought foreign invaders throughout their history. They fight for survival, they fight for plunder, they fight for ransom, they fight for exacting tribute from foreign armies passing through the Khyber Pass, and they like to retain their independence from foreign control.a