The Japanese have led a heavily armored assault against the Chinese city of Shunkien, pounding wreckage into ashes and wiping out a city dating back to Genghis Kahn. One of the few buildings still standing is the small American consulate, now packed with one hundred and sixteen frightened American refugees. Food is low and deadly Asiatic cholera is starting to run rampant, with carnage and corpses piling up in the streets. Two hundred miles away, the USS Miami drops anchor, well equipped with the needed gold to buy food and a cholera serum to prevent disease and death. The dillema is that should the Marines take military action to rush supplies to the consulate, it could force the US into an all-out battle with the Japanese. Marine Gunnery Sergeant James Mitchell and Private First Class Spivits instead are ordered to conduct a treacherous supply mission facing impossible odds to reach and rescue the trapped Americans.