A U.S. government investigator vanishes while on assignment in China. After a suspiciously inadequate official inquest, the missing investigator's family hires former special agent Lars Severin to find out what truly happened to her. Severin's clandestine quest casts him into a labyrinth of double-dealing and conspiracy, taking him from the misty alleys of Seattle's old Chinatown, to the corridors of power of Washington, D.C., to the dazzling modern city of Shanghai, to the ancient heart of rural China. The case grows more complicated with each step he takes, until all at once Severin realizes that his own life is in great danger.