Mr Pump's legacy is ten million dollars. It will go to the builders of the first aeroplane to fly from Paris to New York at 1000 kilometres per hour. To save Stratoship H.22, designed by their father and now threatened by gangsters, Jo and Zette have taken off in the aircraft. Their pet monkey Jocko has gone too. Short of fuel, they land on a desert island...

Jo and Zette fly it out of its hangar and unable to return they crash land near to the North Pole. There they face a race against time to return the plane to home and win the trans-Atlantic challenge. But they haven't counted on the efforts of the Stockrise brothers to scupper their plans.

Hergé, creator of the world-wide sensation "Tintin", began this new series in 1935, about an adventuring pair of siblings, and their pet monkey. Although he would enjoy writing younger characters, with more vivid imaginations, the artist often found himself frustrated by the fact that - compared to his famous boy reporter - Jo and Zette had less freedom to travel, due to their being children.

The Maharajah of Gopal is a bad-tempered sort of person, whose behaviour ranges from the childish to the eccentric, and his long-suffering secretary Badalah is usually on the receiving end. Nevertheless, Jo and Zette's father agrees to build him a bridge in his kingdom. The problem is there is a group of scoundrels led by Prime Minister Ramahjuni and the evil fakir Rabindah who aren't too keen on the idea.