The story follows a tense international intrigue set off by a secret meeting of rulers and the scramble for a packet of compromising papers. Journalists and spies maneuver through salons, trains, and embassies as thefts, betrayals, arrests, and narrow escapes entwine a circle of figures including Dorward, Bellamy, Laverick, and Von Behrling. Rival factions and intelligence schemes produce a sequence of deceptions, interrogations, and revelations as the hunt for documents climaxes in courtroom drama, exposures of treachery, the recovery of the papers, and the clearing or downfall of principal players, concluding with a brief farewell epilogue.