In 1942, during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore, two seasoned homicide detectives-one a Eurasian, caught between two worlds, and the other, a pacifist Japanese escaping dark and tragic secrets at home-are thrown together to solve a high-profile murder and come to terms with each other under the yoke of a brutal and corrupt military regime.

Eurasian homicide detective, Martin Bach, has survived the war and the surrender: now all he has to do is survive the occupation. The Brits are locked up and his new boss at the CID is the ex-police chief of Nagasaki, enigmatic Kano Hayashi, installed by the new regime. Despite being complete strangers, the two men team up to solve the vicious murder of the young trophy wife of a wealthy old friend of the Marquis Fujimoto, Civilian Governor of Malaya-and the Emperor of Japan's brother-in-law. The case naturally captivates the public. So, the Japanese military administration, desperate to win the hearts and minds of the local population, demands that justice at least be seen to be done...and quickly.

To find the elusive killer, Bach and Hayashi must confront their own dark secrets, grapple with the brutal iniquities and indignities of occupation, and learn to work together while struggling to maintain their own rigorous moral codes in a world where morality is trumped by survival...and where their own lives are very much at stake.