The story begins in 1911 with a boy, Zhongliang, brought to the country estate of the wealthy Pang family, a place of opium-addled decadence hidden behind a traditional facade. His older sister, who has married into the clan, promises him the life of a student. But when he arrives, he is forced to b

The story begins in 1911 with a boy, Zhongliang, brought to the country estate of the wealthy Pang family, a place of opium-addled decadence hidden behind a traditional facade. His older sister, who has married into the clan, promises him the life of a student. But when he arrives, he is forced to become their servant. As a child, he hates their cruelty, he envies their wealth, and he burns with a passion for everything he can't have. Zhongliang's departure several years later is shrouded in mystery. He heads for Beijing only to be sidetracked to Shanghai, a glittering metropolis of elegant corruption caught up in the jazz-spiked rush of the modern age. There, he becomes the favorite son of a powerful crime family with a specialty in seducing and blackmailing wealthy women. Then, Zhongliang is given a new assignment: to seduce a young woman, Pang Ruyi, a woman he knows all too well--the heir to the Pang family fortune.