It portrays the historic events that follow when one US Navy officer decides to disobey orders and impulsively sets out to climb the great Mt.

A fleet of smoking black ships steam past Japan’s tributary islands in July 1853, setting off panic among a people who have been sealed off from the rest of the world for over two hundred years.

Navy lieutenant Robert Eden, an idealistic New Englander, immediately recognizes that the colonial intentions of his technologically advanced countrymen toward the feudal, sword-wielding samurai will ignite a violent conflict.

Inspired to pursue peace, he jumps ship and finds himself plunged into an entirely new world of menacing warriors, distraught Japanese who view Americans as monsters, and ravishing geisha.

All of Eden’s efforts are in the name of a lasting peace, but can he survive the cataclysmic clash of two strong cultures?