Hong Kong, 1886. Fini is an ex-priest, an opium addict, and a jaded son of British military and Chinese commoner. He has returned to his disavowed birthplace.
The family figurehead, a war hero in the Crown’s eyes, is dead. What remains is a final request, a jade ring, and a trail through a city built on empire, trade, faith, drugs and vice.
With Xiao—a sharp-tongued feline whose presence is as comforting as it is suspicious—Fini moves from Victoria Harbor into the streets, homes, dens, missions and back rooms of colonial Hong Kong, following fragments of a family history his father never told him.
FOLLOW THE TRAIL
Question the people who knew his father's world. Inspect objects, follow clues, and piece together the meaning of his last request.
But in a city filtered through grief, addiction and memory, certainty is difficult to come by. Some encounters feel too convenient. Some faces seem to belong to another time. And not everyone Fini speaks to may be exactly what they appear to be.
A CITY BUILT ON CONTRADICTIONS
Explore a dramatic vision of nineteenth-century Hong Kong: Chinese shops and alleys beside British institutions, legitimate trade beside opium, missionary faith beside private vice, wealth beside desperation.
The city is not simply a backdrop. Its history, people and tensions are part of the mystery—and Fini's own perception of them may be less reliable than he believes.
AN UNLIKELY COMPANION
Xiao travels at Fini's side, bringing suspicion, curiosity and a dry sense of humor to a deeply personal search for identity, memory and truth.
Whether Xiao is the clearest voice in Fini's world—or simply the one he trusts most—is another question entirely.
