Christopher Nicole Knihy

It is the year 1860, and Japan is at last being forced out of age-old isolation. A feudal warrior state of exquisite culture and barbaric savagery. Where forces gather to threaten the Shogun — and a new Emperor challenges the samurai. Captain Ralph Freeman, US officer on the run, can find no other refuge but this alien land. Alison Gray, victim of shipwreck, must endure years of bondage and sexual humiliation. And both face a fearful struggle for survival as a proud nation is torn apart by bloody civil war.

Michael Harrington, Irish desperado, arrives off the shores of India laden with chains, but fortune has much more in store for him than the squalid death of a mutineer. Soon he is involved in the Chinese opium trade and the love of four women.

INTRIGUE AND VIOLENCE...ENCHANTMENT AND ECSTASYIn 1890, when Constance Baird came to Imperial China, nothing could have prepared her for the strangeness or the splendor of this land and its people. Married to a stern missionary, Constance knew little of life...and even less of love. Her ravishing beauty, and innocent charm made her easy prey for Ksian Fu, the decadent Manchu prince whose enflamed passion could not be denied. Trapped in an alien culture with its ever shifting struggles for power, Constance is soon prey to the corrupt schemings of a ruthless empress. Constance's own fate becomes precarious amidst the conflicts of war and rebellion. Finally, in the arms of a daring American officer, Constance finds the peace she has dreamed of...and the true love that has long escaped her.

Based on the life of Haiti's first emperor, this saga follows the fortunes of slave-master Philippe, Seigneur de Mortmain, and the woman who loves him but finds herself drawn toward revolt.