When Conway falls in love with the woman, Chang says any relationship with her will be only spiritual. Chang introduces Conway to a beautiful Manchu woman who plays the harpsichord. Miss Brinklow questions their morals and wants to convert them to Christianity. Meanwhile Mallinson and Barnard wonder where the monks get their money. He is losing any sense of passion or ambition. Conway finds himself falling under the spell of the tranquility and peace of Shangri-La. One should even be moderate in virtues like honesty and chastity. Chang and Conway discuss the philosophy of the lamasery, which is moderation in all things. Mallinson wants to leave as soon as possible and considers himself to be kidnapped. The four visitors enjoy the immense library, the beautiful gardens and the music of Shangri-La, with one exception. When the next porters come in a month, the four passengers may leave with them. Chang explains that porters come in and out of Shangri-La with these goods. They are amazed that Shangri-La has modern amenities like porcelain bathtubs. The passengers stay in the colorful pavilions of the lamasery and speak with Chang over fine foods. In the valley below is a settlement of people. Shangri-La boasts a lamasery near a perfectly shaped mountain called Blue Moon. The leader of the natives, an elderly Chinese man riding in a sedan chair, becomes the passengers' guide. A group of natives lead them to a local settlement called Shangri-La. Conway believes they are somewhere in an unexplored region of Tibet. They travel over a mountain range that seems as high as the ones near Mount Everest and land in a remote frontier. He wants to 'jump' the pilot, but the pilot is armed and they are not.

Mallinson notices that the plane is traveling in the wrong direction. A night passes on the plane, and it comes to a bad landing to refuel. Barnard, an American oilman and Captain Charles Mallinson, a British vice-consul. The others are Roberta Brinklow, a missionary Henry D. Rutherford has a manuscript that Conway dictated to him, which tells this story: Conway is one of four passengers being evacuated. The two traveled together on a ship to Honolulu, but Conway left the ship suddenly. Rutherford says he came across Conway in a Roman Catholic hospital in Chung-Kiang. The airplane mysteriously vanished, and no one has heard of it or its passengers for months. Rutherford says that Conway disappeared along with three other passengers in an airplane that was evacuating them from the war in Baskul to Peshawar. Three former classmates from Oxford University are having drinks and reminiscing about a mutual friend, 'Glory Conway.' Conway had been a gifted student and athlete in college but never lived up to his promise.

Lost horizons book