hugh conway is a member of the british diplomatic service. he finds inner peace, love, and a sense of purpose in shangri-la. people there live a very long time. one theme of the book is the possibility of another world war and war preparations. this was actually happening at the time. the story is similar to travel stories in the tibetan borderlands by joseph rock in the "national geographic" magazine. the remote communities he visited, such as muli are similar to hilton's fictional shangri-la. the muli town of zhongdian has its name to shangri la (chinese: xianggelila).