Michael Gordon, a star reporter with a nose for trouble, is heading home after an assignment in Iraq. On a Damascus stopover he gives a tip for a story to a fellow American newsman who quickly ends up with a knife in his back in a local camel market. Everyone, including Matthew Reed of the American legation, seems to want Gordon to leave the country. However, he feels obliged to find his friend's murderer. Among the red herrings in the "World's Oldest City" are a card cheat and informer, a beautiful femme fatale, a mysterious hotel owner, a Frenchman with two aliases, and several sinister Arabs. In short order, Gordon foils a Nazi plot to unite the Arab tribes against the Allies designed to help the Germans seize the Suez Canal.