Rubinstein examines the efforts of the Protestant missionaries, representatives of evangelical mission societies in Great Britain and the United States, who sought to introduce Protestant Christianity to Canton, Guangdong Province, and the great empire that was the Qing-dominated China in the decades before the Opium War. He discusses the cultural and political background, the work of missionary pioneer Robert Morrison of the London Missionary, and follows the evolution of his mission work in Canton. The book concludes by showing how British and American missionaries joined forces to create a viable and influential Anglo-American missionary community in South China.