Set in China at the time of the Russo-Japanese War, it is the story of a passionate love between an Anglo-American woman of mixed-race lineage and a Russian doctor. The story has its background a little known and yet crucial episode in early twentieth-century history. It sensitively explores a range of relationships, culminating in showing how a young woman can suddenly be so outraged by injustice that her boldness earns the respect of everyone round her. For this feat she becomes recognised as truly an American Alice who can work wonders.