The Incense Road--fabled and feared for centuries--runs from the North African coast to the southern gates of Arabia. Spices from the Orient, pearls from Ceylon, diamonds and ivory from India, gold from the Persian Gulf have travelled along this time-honoured route. So too have slaves captured from the Cornish coast.

When Allegra Pentrevick learns that her sister has been snatched by pirates from their Cornish home and that her sister's fiance, Lord Hamilton, is planning to rescue her, headstrong Allegra resolves to go too.

Together--through shipwreck and capture, sickness and starvation--they learn that art of survival. It is only, however, as Allegra treads the highway through the desert and meets the Lord of the Incense Road himself that she faces the reality of her hopeless love for Lord Hamilton and learns the truth about her sister's fate.