After failing to alter U.S. worldwide safety coverage by way of clandestinely delivering mystery nuclear know-how to Japan, former Secretary of safeguard Sewall Travers has slightly refrained from a Congressional inquiry. He has resettled in big apple and proven himself as a hedge fund supervisor. The stain of the so-called Stealth affair has all started to vanish in so much stories, yet Travers maintains to suppose the disgrace and shame of the development. So whilst he's by surprise known as via the director of a small non-profit association and invited to behave as a personal negotiator to minimize the tensions among China and Japan over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands within the East China Sea, he reacts definitely within the wish and expectation luck may possibly fix his attractiveness and stable name.
Travers flies to Tokyo less than the canopy of an investor looking possibilities in potential undersea petroleum deposits close to the islands. In Tokyo, his curiosity in eastern ceramics leads him to go to the Matahachi gallery, the place he meets the landlord, Mieko Matahachi. They make a right away romantic connection, and their dating develops speedily. in the meantime, he contacts the reliable in Japan’s Ministry of overseas Affairs who's accountable for the Senkaku/Diaoyu factor, Chiaki Matsumura. They meet to debate his purpose to open a discussion and start negotiations with the chinese language specialists. He additionally meets Kazuko Sumida, an investigative reporter who's attracted to assisting to discover a solution of the dispute. Kazuko does a little research on Ms. Matsumura’s heritage, and unearths that she used to be born to a lady within the family members Travers stayed with in the course of a summer season internship in Japan in the course of his highschool years. Given the identify of the mummy and dates of his remain, Travers starts to appreciate there's a danger that Chiaki Matsumura may be his daughter.
The tale strikes directly to Beijing, the place Travers and Matsumura meet with the chinese language, after which to Taiwan the place they set up with the commander of an army air unit to be helicoptered to the positioning of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. The plot thickens!