Lonely and unexperienced, he decides to leave.

Main points of the story:

-         William prepares his double documents in order to be accepted by both sides of the parties which are governing Ishmaelia, the Bolshevik and the fascist.

-         He sets off for his journey. On the ship he knows a very strange person.

-         Wen he arrives at Jacksonburg, he stays at the Liberty Hotel and here knows other reporters who are investigating the problem.

-         The Swede reporter mistook the ticket collector of the train to Jacksonburg for a Russian spy. The scoop is all around the world.

-         In the town the reporters are looking for Hitchcock, a reporter who has disappeared (the press thinks he has been captured by the fascist army in order not to tell the truth about the country). He’s quietly retired instead. 

-         The town has a welcome department, held by Olafsen. He’s the man every stranger can count on. It starts raining.

-         Wiiliam knows Kätchen, a lovely woman who’s been abandoned by her German husband. She’s in need of cares and money. She lives at Pension Dressler.

-         The life at Jacksonburg flows calmly. From Europe the telegraphs are looking for William’s news. There’s nothing to tell. Salter, Lord Copper’s close co-operator, is wondering if Boot is the real famous expert.

-         William begins to understand there’s nothing in Jacksonburg. The press has swollen the whole facts about the country. Speaking with Jack Bannister, the supporter of Ishmaelian Legation, he learns that there’s no war, only agitation after the rainy season. The ticket collector is not a spy. Laku, the fantastic area where is likely to hide a general quarter ok fascist army, is only an Ismaelian say for “I don’t know”. There is no conflict between Russians and Fascists.

-         William knows Kätchen better: she’s in love with her. He wants to help her and gives her money for to pay the medicines and the pension. But she is exploiting him for her personal advantage.

-         No news arrive from William: Copper is worried about him and sends other reporters to investigate. William understands it’s important to make news, although they are false or he must exaggerate facts; Hitchcock is alive. He leaves the country.

-         Kätchen reveals her real identity: she’s not married with the German. He wants to take her away to England. She hums and haws. Lord Copper is annoyed for Will silence: he fires the reporter.

-         William perceives something moving: the reporters are annoying the real hidden interests that Russians and Germans  have on the country. Ishmaelia is full of gold ore. And there are conflicts with the great nations which are contending the region. Benito, the President for Foreign Affairs, is trying to get rid of Olafsen pretending a raging plague in the country, and William, organising a trip all over the country.

-         The reporters leave for Laku. William is warned not to leave the town.

-         Kätchen is imprisoned. She manages to escape. Her husband comes back. The truth is that the Jacksons have had agreements with Germans to have armies. He’s been imprisoned.  The couple is in trouble; they escape. Will helps them. He’s disappointed.

-         A great revolution bursts: a Bolshevik régime is installed and lasts one day. Will assists calmly. The mysterious person on the ship is, truly, a Mr. Baldwin, British, has bought the interests of the country. And Cuthberth, his companion, was a real spy on the train, he was driving the train. So the counter-revolution happens and the Jacksons are set free.

-         The events are celebrated in Fleet Street. Lord Copper is going to organise a banquet for William’s return and a knighthood. But he doesn’t want to.

-         The real Boot, John Boot, is searched for the banquet. Another time the error is committed.

-         Salter understands the error. He goes to Will’s house and proposes a contract with the journal, trying to convince him to take part to the banquet. No way. Another editor goes to John: but he sets off for an expedition to the Antartic Pole, followed by a mysterious woman who has prevented him from going to Ishmaelia.

-         The banquet cannot be cancelled. Lord Copper meets a Mr. Theodore Boot (a rough uncle of William’s) and understands that some mistake has been made. He decides to shift Salter. The banquet must go on: Theodore Boot is made knight. Everyone shall have a future in “The Daily Beast”.

Commentary

      The story is full of unexpected events and funny double meanings. The scoop is inside the scoop: nobody says the truth, the truth is falser than lies. News are important only to make a journal live, and the funny, ironic experience of William Boot reflect this strange world: the forced, hectic pursuit of hot news.  The irony of the book is supported from the beginning with the exchange of identities. The moral of the story is partly ironic, partly bitter: the country has been bought by the interests of a private. The women are seen liars and unreliable. William is quite unaware of what he’s living. He’s a simple and unexperienced person who does not know the job for which he’s been called: the comedy-like irony of this story is played over the events that William, “unwillingly”, is going to provoke all over the story.

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