Markham receives a late-night call asking her to fly an oxygen tank to a dying miner at the remote camp Nungwe.

Markham flies through complete darkness and lands her Avian plane on a fire-lit makeshift airfield at Nungwe.

Searching the Serengeti for missing pilot Woody, Markham spots his downed Klemm plane's reflective wings and finds him alive.

Young Markham runs past the lion Paddy, who pounces; Bishon Singh calls for help and rescues her.

On a Nandi boar hunt, Markham kills a charging wild boar with her spear to protect herself.

Arab Maina, a Nandi warrior who hunted with Markham as a child, dies fighting for the British in World War I.

Drought destroys Markham's father's Kenyan farm; he departs for Peru and Markham chooses to remain in Africa alone.

The grown Kibii, now Arab Ruta, arrives at Markham's hut and asks to work as her stable hand.

Against expectations, Markham's filly Wise Child wins the prestigious Saint Leger race, beating the heavily favored colt Wrack.

Pilot Tom Black lands at a Nairobi field at night with an injured hunter, inspiring Markham to take up flying.

After 18 months and over a thousand hours of training, Markham earns her commercial pilot's B license.

While evaluating elephants for a safari with hunter Blix, Markham comes face-to-face with a huge bull elephant in the brush.

Markham makes four landings and takeoffs on a tiny rough airstrip to rescue Blix's hunting party trapped by floodwaters.

At a London dinner party, Lord Carberry offers to finance Markham's solo westward flight across the Atlantic, and she accepts.

After her carburetor ices over Nova Scotia, Markham crash-lands in a bog; she later arrives to a celebration in New York.

Markham's memoir begins with her work as Africa's only female bush pilot, flying rescue missions across the Kenyan wilderness in 1935. Her courage was forged in childhood on her father's horse farm, where she survived a lion attack, hunted with Nandi warriors, and learned that loyalty and daring were requirements for survival. After her father loses his farm and leaves for Peru, Markham builds her own career as a racehorse trainer before discovering aviation and earning her commercial pilot's license. As a pilot she takes on increasingly dangerous work, scouting elephants for safaris and rescuing hunters trapped by floodwaters. The memoir's climax arrives when Lord Carberry finances her attempt at the first solo westward transatlantic flight. Markham takes off from England, battles mechanical failure over the ocean, and crash-lands in Nova Scotia before being celebrated in New York.

The essential moments of Markham's extraordinary life and career.

Arab Ruta helps Markham start her Avian plane in complete darkness before her overnight flight to Nungwe.

A mining official named Ebert introduces Markham to Bergner, a mine worker dying of blackwater fever at Nungwe.

To lift the dying Bergner's spirits, Markham invents a story that the hunter Carl Hastings won a bet against him.

Bishon Singh, the Sikh merchant who once rescued Markham from a lion, appears with a caravan near Woody's crash site.

Young Markham sneaks out before dawn with her dog Buller and a Masai spear to join Nandi warriors on a boar hunt.

Before the hunt begins, the Nandi warriors perform a ritual, and a young woman named Jebbta remarks on the unusual sight of Markham joining.

The arrogant thoroughbred Camciscan throws Markham into a tree during training, injuring her head and keeping her bedridden for a week.

After accepting Markham's authority, Camciscan stands over her protectively through an entire night during a thunderstorm in his stall.

Markham's father watches unseen from the shadows as she carefully tends Coquette through the birth of her foal, then gives her the colt.

Markham rides Pegasus along a familiar road toward Molo to begin her new independent life as a horse trainer.

Markham's first encounter with Tom Black occurs when she finds him stranded on a road with a broken-down automobile.

Tom Black warns Markham not to fly with Denys Finch-Hatton; the flight ends with Denys's plane crashing and his death.

Italian fascist authorities hold Markham and Blix in Cairo for six days without explanation before permitting them to continue toward England.

After finding no hotel rooms in Benghazi, Markham and Blix unknowingly spend the night in a bordello whose owner was once trafficked.

Tom Black, Markham's flying teacher and lifelong friend, dies when another aircraft strikes his plane while it taxis on a runway.

Behind Markham's headline achievements are the smaller encounters and supporting figures who quietly shaped her path. Arab Ruta's steadfast presence—from starting her plane in darkness to retraining as her mechanic—runs through the entire memoir as a testament to loyalty. Her work with horses like the rebellious Camciscan and the gifted Pegasus reveals the tenderness and discipline she brings to every challenge. A roadside breakdown leads to her first meeting with Tom Black, whose arrival in Kenya with a plane sets her life in a new direction. Her travels also expose moral complexity, from the lonely dying men at Nungwe to the dark history uncovered in a Benghazi bordello. Tom Black's death on a runway brings a quiet, devastating close to the thread of friendship that runs beneath her famous exploits.

The people, places, and quieter moments woven into Markham's journey.

Bishon Singh shows Markham his withered arm and tells her their shared lion attacks make them like brothers.

For the first time ever, Paddy the lion rises from his resting place and quietly follows young Markham before pouncing.

The Nandi hunting party encounters a lion at a salt lick but reads its mood correctly and passes without incident.

A wild boar gashes Arab Kosky's leg so deeply that he must leave Markham alone in the bush to seek medical treatment.

Arab Maina finds Markham alone at night in the brush beside the injured Buller and scolds Kosky for abandoning his warrior duty.

Young Kibii, Arab Maina's son, vows to kill the man who shot his father once he completes the rites of manhood.

After recovering from her injury, Markham pits her will against the rebellious stallion Camciscan until he finally submits to her authority.

Markham's father counsels her to go to Molo but warns that few horse owners will trust such a young girl with their horses.

The owner of favored colt Wrack withdraws him from Markham's care just twelve weeks before the Saint Leger race.

Wise Child appears to falter in the Saint Leger's final furlong but gathers herself and wins the race by six lengths.

Markham tells Ruta she has decided to take up flying; he immediately asks what hour in the morning they should begin.

Ruta abandons horse training entirely and retrains as Markham's airplane mechanic so he can continue working alongside her.

A Muslim fortune teller in Cairo predicts Markham will fly alone across a great body of water to a strange land.

Markham's engine nearly stalls just thirty feet above the Atlantic after she switches to her second fuel tank mid-ocean.

After her transatlantic flight, Markham repeatedly hears suggestions that she should write her memoir and ultimately decides to do so.

Markham's life is punctuated by moments of sudden revelation and irreversible choice. As a child, she witnesses the instant a tame lion becomes a predator, and she learns that a lion's attack can leave a lasting bond between survivors. Each crisis on the wild boar hunt tests the loyalties of the group, shaping Markham's understanding of duty and abandonment. Setbacks in her horse-training career, like losing a favored colt weeks before a major race, force her to bet everything on an underdog and win. A single spontaneous declaration to Ruta about learning to fly sets both their lives on a new course. Portents and near-disasters—a fortune teller's prophecy in Cairo, an engine sputtering above the ocean—mark the approach of her greatest triumph. The memoir closes with its final turning point: the decision to put her own extraordinary story into words.