In this gorgeous, suspenseful novel, a Russian aristocrat races to stop a plague spreading from an isolated Manchurian city to the rest of the world. Based on a true story, this novel was inspired by the author's discovery of a long-lost book by a Russian doctor who chronicled a plague epidemic in Manchuria in 1910. A multi-series international television production of Shields' first novel "The Fig Eater" is currently in the works. Print run 75,000.