When private investigator Daniel Beckett foils an assault on a young girl in London's West End, it leads to an offer of work from a sinister and unlikely source in Soho's Chinatown. But what starts out as a straightforward missing persons' case soon takes on a more ominous aspect as he discovers a trail of blackmail, sadistic violence, conspiracy and murder, plus an influential, privileged and poisonous presence that seems to permeate all spheres...