Beginning in Shanghai in the 1920s, this story follows the career of a Norwegian diplomat in the Far East and the lives of his three growing daughters, each by a mother of different nationality; and a host of other characters - Chinese, Japanese, French, White Russian, American - with whom their lives become entwined. In turn they are involved in love-affairs that somehow hinge on the intrigues building up with increasing intensity as the Japanese expand in South-East Asia. Each survives in her own way into a changed post-war world. But when peace has ostensibly changed everything, a chance encounter spotlights dramatically the unchanging differences between East and West which can still cause misunderstanding and disaster.