David Brisbane wanted adventure. He had the means to accomplish most things any reasonable man could want. He was well liked and thought of. He was also terribly bored but he wasn't about to do anything really dangerous like shipping off to sea so he traveled about, looking for something that would catch his fancy and add some adventure to his life. Soon all manner of people attached themselves to him, inventors, speculators and travelers as he was willing to invest in some of the mad schemes where no one else would.
Then one day Dr. Herbert Horowitz introduced David to something he could be part of. No backbreaking labor (well maybe for his assistant) no extreme danger to his life (his mother would kill him if he died). Dr. Horowitz had concocted a device and a plan to bring culture to the Amazon. A device that could replicate any number of actors to play parts in a play. Via hypnosis various settings and qualities are conveyed. By bringing the classic greek plays and the works of Shakespeare to the natives, their lives could be lifted from their darkness and they could join the rest of the world in the cultural revolution to come! To accomplish this however Dr Horowitz needed one leading actor and one leading lady (who would be played by his daughter Anne).
There was one actor that could fill the role, only one would do, Edward Paddington. If only he could be somehow persuaded. . .