When his father dies of a mysterious disease in the early 1900s, young Eddie rids himself of his estate and a wife twice his age and leaves Japan-ruled, Choson, Korea for Manchuria, where his desire for a Japanese general's geisha alters his life forever. Passing him off as Japanese she has him sent to medical school in Tokyo, with army support, until his masquerade comes apart, the Kempeitai hot on his heels, the geisha paying dearly for her folly, his final reckoning in blood.