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The Fitzwilliams Foundation, a London think tank, engages Michael D'Arcy, the overeducated son of a well-connected Irish diplomat, to gather information for a report on the trafficking of tropical timber from Papua New Guinea's rain forests to China.

His girlfriend, Lucy Wang, the daughter of a Shanghai tycoon and property developer, has returned home, and the idea of heading east pleases Michael.

When Michael arrives in Papua, he learns how rich Chinese-Malaysian conglomerates, with the complicity of corrupt officials, illegally clearcut the rain forest for its valuable timber, the first step in the development of vast oil palm plantations.

Michael's investigation shows cargoes of raw logs are regularly shipped to Delta Timber, one of China's leading timber importers, part of a diversified business empire owned by Wang Huiyao, aka Henry Wang, Lucy's father.

Whose side will Lucy take when she discovers the catastrophic consequences of her father’s business operations as his group is caught in a gathering crisis, a Lehman Brothers moment, as China's markets are shaken by the greatest debt crisis in the country's modern history?

As Michael heads for China, its property market is hit, prices tumble, millions of apartments lie empty, and banks are reluctant to lend.

A perfect storm as President Xin Jinping clamps down on China's tycoons on anti-patriotic acts, including financial crime, commercial espionage and free expression, a crisis compounded by the reappearance of the Covid virus