A modern epic a heart-breaking love story an unforgettable journey of the spirit. The year is 1858. Thomas Glover is a restless young man with dreams of escape. Abandoning his childhood sweetheart, he takes a posting as a trader in Japan. Within ten years he earns a great fortune, learns the ways of the Samurai and helps to overthrow the Shogun. Yet beneath his astonishing success lies a man cut to the heart by an affair with a beautiful courtesan, a lover who, unknown to Glover, would bear him a son.