American Jade del Cameron has ended up in British East Africa, after working as an ambulance driver in the Great War. She has settled on a career of travel writing and photography in Africa, and travels out to the wild to photograph elephants. Traveling with her are her friends Beverly and Avery Dunbury, her young charge Jelani, and her pet cheetah, Biscuit.
They stumble across elephant carcasses, victims of ivory poachers, as well as her old friend and irritating suitor Harry Hascombe and the party of German tourists he is leading on a safari.
Jade is suspicious of Harry and his Germans, and finds clues linking them to the poachers and to gun smuggling. Young American pilot Sam Featherstone arrives at their camp, hoping to make movies of elephants, complicating the plot and Jade's feelings. Since her fiance, a pilot in the war, was killed she has resolutely avoided romantic entanglements.
Jade tracks the poachers, finds and hides a cache of German guns, sets snares, dismantles a pit trap, and tracks down Jelani when he is kidnapped by slavers. She does get a tiny bit of help from her friends--and an unusual man who appears out of nowhere, an ancient and mysterious native named Boguli, who leads her to safe trails and hiding places when she is stalking the evil leader of the poachers.
Armchair Interviews says: This book follows The Mark of the Lion. Arruda is a zookeeper and biologist, and has researched her wildlife extensively. If you like Isak Dinesen, and Beryl Markham, Jade is a woman in their mold.