Synopsis: From the front flap of the first edition: This is the story of a weird, mysterious region of the earth, the great Amazonian jungle known as the Matto Grosso; and here is found reigning a truly Amazonian queen, the descendant of the Incas of Peru, one of the great races of mankind of which the history is only a half-told tale. Xia is a worthy scion of that noble race; but to beauty and psychic force she adds an overmastering ambition to rule the world and to revive the ancient glory and civilisation of her ancestors. How she entangled into the web of her tragic destiny Peter Gaskell, a Yorkshire farmer and two of his friends, leads to the unfolding of Mr. Wallis's enthralling romance.