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In Chinatown, visiting cowboy Lord purchases beautiful Chinese slave girl McCarthy to save her from certain sale to a San Francisco brothelkeeper. Discovering that she will be no better off free, Lord brings the girl home to serve as live-in maid for himself and his less than pleased mother, Hutchinson. Gradually, Lord and McCarthy fall in love, to the discomfiture of Asian immigrant Shigeta, a disaffected, proud young man. Wanting to learn to handle a gun, Shigeta enlists the services of itinerant preacher-gunslinger Torme, a black-garbed mystery man. Graced with great reflexes, Shigeta ultimately guns down his mentor. McCarthy elects to leave the household of the round-eyes and go away with Shigeta despite her love for Lord. A fascinating view of the schism between Asian immigrants and whites in the turn-of-the-century West, this offering is mainly the product of Clavell's talents; he would go on to greater fame in a similar vein as the author of the East-meets-West epic novel Shogun.