Madeleine Lacey is a Detective Inspector in Hong Kong's Serious Crimes Squad. She's young, she's sexy, and she's tough - and she's married to her job.
For DEA agent John Keelan, the battle against crime is more personal. Back in California, his wife and daughter were horribly murdered by a mafia drug baron.
Ruby Wen also has an interest in the heroin business - from the other side. Her high-risk lifestyle soon becomes as addictive as the drug on which it is founded, and before long the heady swirl of money, sex and danger threatens to pull her under.
While Hong Kong casts off the traditions of the past and anticipates 1997 with uncertainty, their story unfolds. And as the triads - the world's fastest growing criminal fraternity - reach westward, Keelan's odyssey leads him first to Lacey, then to Ruby Wen, and finally to the man who destroyed his life.