Upon his arrival in Hong Kong, Will Truesdale meets Trudy Liang, a beautiful Eurasian socialite of Portuguese and Chinese descent.
She and Will fall deeply in love, but are inevitably separated by World War II and the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong.
Will is sent to an internment camp while Trudy becomes both the tutor and unwilling mistress of the cruel Japanese General Otsubo, who rules Hong Kong.
Ten years later Claire Pendelton, twenty-eight and newly married, moves from England to Hong Kong with her husband Martin.
The novel moves fluidly between the two love affairs that happen 10 years apart, tying together the social fabric that interweaves the lives of so many, and ultimately culminates in the revelations of war-time secrets and betrayals.