A U.S. military and diplomatic mission crosses from Gangtok, India, into Lhasa, Tibet during the Second World War, and the silent footage follows the party's route step by step. They climb through the Natu La and Kechu La passes, stop at the British trail station in Gyantse to review troops of the Tropji Regiment, and cross the Brahmaputra River by ferry. The camera lingers on Tibetan villages along the way, recording how people build their houses, travel the mountain terrain, and dress for the cold. A New Year religious festival gets extended coverage, with crowds, ritual dress, and public ceremony filling the frame. The mission's final stretch takes it into Lhasa itself, touring the Dalai Lama's palaces and several monasteries, their architecture shot in the same plain, observational style as everything before it. There is no narration to speak of, just a wartime American party's raw record of a route almost no outsider traveled, preserved by the National Archives.