Set in the Limehouse area of London, Dope is a story of Chinatown and the drug traffic and concerns itself with cannabis use. It is based on the story of Billie Carleton, a young English actress whose scandalous lifestyle ended with her death from a drug overdose. It is Rohmer's most popular novel, and generally voted a better story than any of the Fu-Manchu books, has taxed the vocabularies of all the reviewers in the country to find the right word to describe its thrilling appeal.