A mysterious message appears in Boathouse Number 7, written in Urdu and English. Platy has to rush to Australia to find his missing nephew. So this time Gabriel has a new companion: Jack, a three-legged cat with no tail and no fear.

Jack leads Gabriel through a secret portal, hidden in a compost heap, all the way to India.

High in the mountains, Gabriel joins a hidden training camp. He learns to remember everything he sees, to spot a lie, and to stay on a galloping horse. Then he travels to the ancient city of Taxila, where a girl called Asha has been trapped inside a painting.

To rescue her, Gabriel will need a code cracked by a platypus, a feather from a Griffin, and all the courage he has.

Gabriel was twelve when he finished this story. It is his most exciting adventure so far, and it ends with the start of the next one.