"Barker and Llewelyn discover a pawn ticket among the effects of Barker's late assistant, leading them to London's Chinese district, Limehouse. There they retrieve an innocent-looking book that proves to be a rare and secret text stolen from a Nanking monastery. When they take it to Ho, Barker's favorite restaurateur, for inspection, they discover that it contains lethal martial arts techniques forbidden to the West. With the political situation between the British Empire and Imperial China already precarious, the duo must safeguard the text from a snarl of suspects with conflicting interests -- and track down a killer intent upon gaining the secret knowledge."