The Foreign Office has a variety of overseas positions to fill. A diplomat, for example, can operate with minimal stress in Canberra, Australia. However, depending on the host country, the situation can be quite the opposite for him. The author shares how the Napoleon admirer Jean-Bedel Bokassa - free from any anti-colonial sentiments - crowned himself emperor in his own way, hated journalists, and how a diplomat risked his recall by the authorities through "bureaucratically correct behavior." The reader also learns about surprising events, including the "accusation of coup planning by Germans" and the course of the coup initiated by France. Some sections of the text read like a crime novel, yet they were reality.