In exotic and turbulent nineteenth century China, a wise-cracking customs official must discard his opium pipe and his nightly companions to find out who murdered his best friend, a search which embroils him in a geopolitical battle between three empires. Our reluctant hero must risk totrure and death to convince a dilettante Emperor and a depraved and despotic Empress to thwart a German-Japanese plot that threatens to disintegrate the Middle Kingdom. Book 1 in a series.