The pioneering traveler journeys to Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon, ultimately reaching the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula, present-day Yemen, in the winter of 1934. Her goal is the southern section of the medieval incense route, which winds through the 600-kilometer-long Hadramaut Valley. At its western end, she hopes to encounter the legendary city of Shabwa, deeply nestled in the desert and the capital of the fabled Kingdom of Hadramaut, near modern-day Marib. A city that no European had yet seen, where, buried under the ruins, an immeasurable wealth seemed to await treasure hunters and archaeologists. With great narrative power, the explorer recounts the experiences of a European woman who was the first to dare to venture into the inaccessible and closed-off region of the Arabian Peninsula.