When young teacher Shelby Johnson leaves Louisiana and crosses the Pacific to teach English at a university in northern China, she does not expect to find a corpse in her office. Who would murder Judith Treadway, respected and admired senior foreign expert? A disgruntled student? Japanese? Russians? a jealous lover?

Linguistics Professor Stanley Poussaint, Shelby's colleague and friend, works with the local police Chief Ling Feng, to find the answer to this gruesome murder.