One young woman stands between the might of the British Empire and the glory of the Middle Kingdom. Can she find the key to liberate her people?
China, 1850. Jin Soling just wants to keep her family safe. Eight years after her father’s execution, she struggles to support her mother’s opium addiction and fears her brother will be handed hard labor in the factories. But when she travels to Changsha City to pawn the mysterious locked box her father invented, she’s abducted by imperial agents who have been searching for its secrets.
Ordered to track down the rebel holding the formula to powering the Chinese fleet, Soling finds herself paired with her former betrothed and working for those who betrayed her family. Though the mission is supposed to expel the British occupiers, she suspects she’s being used as bait by unknown enemies.
Can Soling help fire the revolution and escape the clutches of court conspiracies?