At the turn of the Century Percy Fawcett was a Royal Engineer in an army artillery unit. He was experienced in foreign service, and he needed a career change. He volunteered for a project to survey a stable frontier between Brazil and Bolivia to end their almost constant border disputes. His first survey expedition began in 1906. It would be a taxing task in extremely difficult wild country; but it would continue to generate other, similar, tasks that would consume the rest of his life.

He charted the wilderness of South America, but then disappeared without a trace while was in search of a lost city in the Brazilian jungle and a mythical redheaded race.