At the twilight of the British Empire, Dr. Fu Manchu again comes up against Nayland Smith, the one man who can stop his sinister plans to destroy the Western world and remake it in the glorious image of the East, with Fu Manchu as absolute ruler. First appearing in Sax Rohmer's short story «The Zayat Kiss,» the oriental super-villain went on to appear in 14 books between 1913 and 1973.