In 1927/8, the cameraman Paul Lieberenz accompanied the Swedish researcher Sven Hedin on an expedition through Inner Asia from Beijing to Urumqi. Lufthansa was planning to launch a direct flight from Berlin to Beijing; meteorological observations had to be made, weather stations had to be built and the land had to be investigated for places that would make appropriate airfields. But the film is less focused on the research carried out by the 27 academics in total than on the caravans, made up of no fewer than 300 camels and numerous helpers, as they make their way with "Faustian drive" (Siegfried Kracauer), through rocky and sandy deserts.