Presents the story of the search for an ancient silk scroll inscribed with a lost Buddhist sutra, and one woman's search for her lost love.

When the body of an American archaeologist is found floating in the Yangzi River, Ministry of Public Security agent Liu Hulan and her husband, American attorney David Stark, are dispatched to Site 518 to investigate. As Hulan scrutinizes his death, David, on behalf of the National Relics Bureau, tries to discover who has stolen from the site an artifact that may prove to the world China's claim that it is the oldest uninterrupted civilization on earth....

The media and the terror-stricken public are demanding the arrest of the Beijing Ripper and Li Yan, the head of Beijing's serious crime squad, has been put in the spotlight. American pathologist Margaret Campbell is invited to perform an autopsy on one of the victims and her results send shockwaves through the investigation. Then Li begins receiving personal letters from the killer, and his life and career start falling apart.

As China plans to invade Taiwan, and launches a cyber attack on the U.S., President Jack Ryan, his son, and the team at the Campus have to act fast if they are going to stop the increasingly rogue nation.

In nineteenth century China, in a remote Hunan county, a girl named Lily, at the tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, or "old same," in an emotional match that will last a lifetime. The two women exchange messages written on silk fans and handkerchieves using nu shu, a unique language that women created in order to communicate in secret, sharing their experiences, but when a misunderstanding arises, their friendship threatens to tear apart....