On the eve of the Battle of Shanghai in 1937, Qi Sheng, leader of the Axe Gang, and Gu Shiyue, head of the Qingyi Society, are sworn enemies who hold sway over the docks and foreign concessions. Qi Sheng is as fierce as a wildfire, the scar over his brow a mark of the territory he carved out at the docks. Gu Shiyue is as cold as ice, a white rose on his suit's lapel concealing a deadly threat. They clash over their turf, staining the Huangpu River with blood. Then the shadow of Japanese bombers tears across the sky. Qi Sheng's axe hangs three inches from Gu Shiyue's throat, while Gu Shiyue's gun is aimed at the enemy planes. The invaders' iron hooves crush their personal feud.
At a sham banquet hosted by the “Co-Prosperity Merchant Association,” Second Lieutenant Takeuchi watches contemptuously as the two men draw their guns and face off for the position of chairman. When the shots ring out, no one notices that both bullets have, by unspoken agreement, veered away from the other's heart. When Takeuchi takes innocent civilians hostage and forces the two men to fight each other, Qi Sheng's giant axe cuts through the prison chains, while Gu Shiyue's white rose turns into a poisonous thorn that pierces Takeuchi's throat with deadly precision. Bloodstained petals drift across the map of Shanghai Bay. In the sunlight spilling through a warehouse skylight, the two bloodied shadows finally become one.
An alliance in the shadows quietly weaves its web. Qi Sheng's dockworkers and Gu Shiyue's informants in the dance halls scatter and infiltrate the city. They seize weapons, destroy drug dens, and pass along hope right under the Japanese army's noses. But the newly appointed chief of the Special Higher Police, Takahashi Akira, is a smiling tiger even more sinister than Takeuchi, and he carefully sows seeds of suspicion. His schemes to drive a wedge between them leave Qi Sheng watching his brothers imprisoned and his businesses sealed, while Gu Shiyue seems to be secretly colluding with Chongqing. Just as their trust is close to collapse, a top-secret intelligence report from someone codenamed “Night Owl” changes everything: the Japanese army's biological weapons program is horrifying. The two join forces once more...
