In 1900 Simon Fonthill, Alice and Jenkins travel into a China convulsed by the Boxer uprising. Their intention is personal—a visit to Alice’s missionary uncle—but attacks on foreigners and Chinese Christians force them toward Peking with a group of refugees. Reaching the capital brings no safety: foreign residents and legations are themselves under siege, and Fonthill must navigate street fighting, divided loyalties and the possibility that imperial troops will join the assault.
The novel uses the Boxer Rebellion and the siege of the foreign legations as its historical framework. The anti-foreign movement spread rapidly across northern China, while Empress Dowager Cixi’s Qing government moved from uncertainty to support for war against the foreign powers. The international relief expedition that eventually reached Beijing turned a domestic uprising into an episode of armed imperial intervention, providing Wilcox with one of the series’ most politically charged settings.
