To All Appearances a Lady is Marilyn Bowering’s haunting, evocative debut novel and one of her most loved and memorable works.

As Robert Lam sets off on his voyage up the coast of Vancouver Island, the last passenger he expects is a ghost. But when the spirit of Lam Fam—the woman who raised him—suddenly and mysteriously appears, the trip they embark on initiates a quest for the truth about a past both have been avoiding for too many years.

Together Robert and Lam Fam relive a harrowing story that begins in nineteenth-century China and takes them on a journey through the South China Sea, across the Pacific to the shores of British Columbia and the dangerous, secretive labyrinth of the B.C. opium trade. There follows a rich and compelling tale of love and deception, greed and drugs—all set against a background of fascinating historical detail and the clash of transplanted cultures.