A thrilling tale of adventure, loyalty, and ambition set during the Boxer Rebellion.

China, 1900. A stifling heat seems to herald the fires of war in the north of the country. A secret society, the Boxers, threatens to eliminate all foreigners in the region, while the Manchu court remains passive and the Western powers remain incredulous.

In Beijing, a Spanish veteran of the Philippine War and the son of an English merchant become entangled in a strange antiquities theft. Meanwhile, a British missionary couple endures the horrors of war in a remote village, and a disgraced Chinese mandarin is forced to undertake an impossible mission at the service of his bitter enemies in the imperial court, alongside a terrifying Boxer with a deformed face.

The destinies of these characters intertwine in a gripping story of adventure, loyalty, ambition, love, and betrayal during that sweltering and bloody summer of 1900, when the entire world held its breath with eyes fixed on China.