The Power House is the first adventure of the classic Buchan hero, the prosperous Scots lawyer and MP Sir Edward Leithen, whose measured daily routine of 'flat, chambers, flat, club' is enlivened by the sudden disappearence of Charles Pitt-Heron, one of his Oxford contemporaries.

Leithen steps up to the mark, coordinating efforts to thwart those responsible for his friend's departure; meanwhile, fellow politician Tommy Deloraine heads to Moscow to track down hte missing man. As the investigation develops, Leithen finds himself pitted against green-spectacled villain Andrew Lumley and a terrifying international anarchist network called 'The Power House'.