A door in the Temple of the Sun turns once a Martian year, and John Carter has until it comes round again to learn whether his princess is alive behind it. Burroughs drives him from the frozen north pole to the city of the yellow men, through four races and two continents, at the pace of a serial that had to end each instalment on a drawn sword. Here the Barsoom cycle closes its first arc, and Carter finally earns the title the trilogy is named for.