Mingzhi is the formidable Master Chai's first grandson and groomed for a grand destiny from the very moment of his birth. But while Master Chai beats out orders with his dragon stick, there are threats to the future he has planned - from both within and without. Inside the mansion, there are secrets, lies, and plots; in the surrounding fields, there is the newly planted opium that signifies trouble ahead; and, further away, still, the foreign devils, intent on taking their own piece of the pie that is China. 'Like a good Chinese drawing but always in motion . . . with the same breadth of scope and wealth of characters as many great nineteenth-century novels' ALASDAIR GRAY, TLS 'Chiew-Siah Tei is a master storyteller, and a rare talent, with that magical ability of being able to weave a spell over her readers, with riveting plots and prose that glows with life' Time Out HK