Aristocratic, 27 year old Violet Harris has come to Shanghai in April, 1922, for the purposes of marrying the prominent British trader, Robert Preston. Robert has been told by his father, the Earl of Wilford, to marry and have heirs or face being written out of the line of succession to his earldom. Violet's father, Lord Harris, has died and left her penniless and she must fend for herself. She must either marry, something she has been loath to do, or sink into the lower classes. It is a marriage of convenience for both of them. When she arrives in Shanghai, Violet finds that Robert has been living with his mistress, a beautiful, young, Chinese tart, in the very mansion that was to have been her marital home. When, afraid of the scandal, she breaks off the engagement, Robert starts a whirlwind courtship to try and convince her not to go back to England. While they are out one night at a jaded casino in the Chinese section of the city, Violet has a fateful encounter with General Wang Ku, a Chinese Warlord and absolute ruler of 400 square miles of territory along the Yangtze River in Hunan Province. Violet, somewhat inebriated, inadvertently insults the general and bets against him at roulette. When Wang loses, he casts his evil eye on the voluptuous Englishwoman and leaves. The next day, the day of Violet's scheduled departure back to England, she and Robert go for a final walk together in one of the city's beautiful parks. Robert steps away from her for only a moment, and Violet's life changes in that instant. She is abducted and whisked away in a sinister, black motorcar. Forced to travel upriver towards the general's fortress in Hunan, she is kept in the strictest, most humiliating confinement. Violet wonders fearfully what will be her fate. She has been told that Wang is a ruthless killer. Will he murder her in some devious, painful way in revenge at her insult, or will he have her trained at the point of a whip to serve as his sexual slave, his concubine? Time will tell as Violet is brought closer and closer to her destiny. Only Robert can save her, but will he? This novel includes explicit scenes of violence and non-consensual sex.