Set at the time of the Chinese Boxer Rebellion of 1900. Theodore, the son of American missionaries, escapes when the rebels destroy his father’s settlement and falls in with a foul-mouthed female ex-music-hall star, now a plant-hunter.
“A piece of soot had got inside of Jenny’s nose and when she sneezed, the brick that she was sitting on broke loose. A heap of soot poured down the chimney, and in the middle of the soot, right on the floor, sat Jenny Linsky.”