summary This is a story which begins in California and ends in China. It is a detective tale with a subtle love interest. Victor Lin, a Chinese-American died in mysterious circumstances on a trip to the Thousand Island Lake south of the city of Hangzhou. His wife Anne Gavin, an Irish-American, went to China to find out what really happened. In the course of her investigation, she teamed up with David Han, an academic from Hong Kong who also lost his sister in the same “accident”. As the story unfolds, the reader is treated to an exploration of the Chinese mind torn between two cultures – the native Chinese culture and the culture of the West.