Desperate for a fresh start, Harriet Gordon finds herself in Singapore at the height of colonial rule. Hoping to gain some financial independence, she advertises her services as a personal secretary. Unfortunately, when she arrives to begin work for her first client, Sir Oswald Newbold, she finds him dead with a knife in his throat. When Inspector Robert Curran is put on the case, he is intrigued by Harriet s keen eye for detail and sense of duty. When a second body is dragged from the canal, Harriet and Curran are drawn into a complex web of stolen gemstones and a mysterious gang of thieves, who have no qualms about killing again.