Beautiful, impressionable young Hellen North meets Oliver Marathon when he is on holiday. Blessed with looks, determination, and a family background so illustrious that it has smoothed his way into the upper echelons of British Government Service in colonial Hong Kong in 1920, Oliver sweeps Hellen away with a marriage proposal. They ignore the whispers and warnings of people who say that a simple farm girl is not an acceptable Marathon bride, and plan to marry in Hong Kong. So when Oliver is summoned back East peremptorily, he asks Hellen to follow. But her courage falters during the long voyage. The more she learns about Oliver's family, the more she despairs of being accepted. In this vulnerable state she meets George Curtain, a man with a dubious reputation, but just enough gentlemanly behavior to fool Hellen. He lures her ashore in Singapore and entangles her in a cruel trap. Finding Oliver seems an impossibility as Hellen makes her way in a world of passion and intrigue, where anything can happen.