John Caspasian, hero of The Viceroy's Captain, is assigned to Shanghai, a city seething with intrigue and violence as rival Chinese revolutionaries make war on each other. Sent up the Yangtse to make an alliance with the man the British have picked to stop the 'communist' Chiang Kai-Shek, Caspasian discovers that the supposed champion of the west is a vicious murderer. The warlord's right had man is the English war hero who saved Caspasian's life in the trenches in World War I. So why is he trying to kill Caspasian now?