This novella is a strange tale of two men who tried to become kings of Kafiristan by trickery and a show of military strength. Years later, one man tells the story of how they fooled the natives into thinking they were gods, took control of many villages, and militarized the people who eventually turned on them.

This is not Kipling's best work. The narrative is mostly told from an unreliable narrator who is going insane and losing his mind. So the story is disjointed and chaotic. There are a lot of cultural things that are never explained, so I was left wondering what was going on in a few scenes.

But it does have that Kipling flavor! There is this mystic mood, and the feeling that anything could happen in the distant mountains of the world where everything is possible.