Kate is afflicted with deafness as a child in China in the 1800s, where her Irish refugee father Samuel lives an apparently blameless life working for the Chinese Maritime Customs Service. After his death, his family discover a shocking fact.
As a young woman now needing to support herself, Kate has very limited options, and agrees to marry the clever but disturbingly odd Geoffrey, whose personal problems and disastrous choices continue to make for a colorful, difficult and adventurous life.
He, Kate and their first child, faced with a business failure, race from China under siege to settle in Japan, where, amongst other influential people, Geoffrey meets the exiled Sun Yat Sen.
Kate constantly faces dramatic changes: from a respectable middle-class Victorian Miss in Colonial Chefoo, life amongst professionals in the Japan of the Last Emperor; a train journey alone across Russia with four small children; and learning to cope as an impoverished housewife in war-torn England.
In her humdrum old age, Kate is suddenly confronted by a lively skeleton from her father's past, and his secret relationship. Based on a true story, this is a compelling tale of adventure, and of overcoming enormous odds. It tells of Kate’s first love, her relationship with her family, her helps, and an unexpected visitor; and reveals her warmth and strength of character.
