Shanghai in 1928: neon lights blaze across the city’s glittering streets, but they cannot conceal the blades flashing in the shadows. Gu Yanqiu rises from a penniless boy dependent on others to build his own gambling empire in the French Concession, thanks to his exceptional courage and ruthless methods. He marries four women in turn: Wen Ruoyu, a medicine merchant’s daughter; Lei Yuchan, the daughter of a gang boss; Qin Suxin, a maid; and Lin Peiyao, a dancer. Each of his four wives has her own designs, and behind the red gates of the Gu residence, they wage a war without smoke.
Wen Ruoyu’s gentle virtue hides family secrets. Behind Lei Yuchan’s fiery temper lies a struggle between gang factions. Beneath Qin Suxin’s timidity lurks a deadly betrayal, while Lin Peiyao’s allure conceals a mad determination to defy fate. From opium smuggling to battles for control of the docks, from whispered secrets in the embroidery room to witchcraft in a hidden chamber, the Gu family tear at one another in a quagmire of desire. Everyone’s fate hinges on the dice as they tumble.
When Gu Yanqiu’s birthday banquet turns into a trap, when a blood curse from years ago begins to come true, and when an illegitimate son returns with secrets from the South Seas, the seemingly impregnable Gu residence is already riddled with cracks of decay. The old steward always says that in the dead of night, he can hear silver dollars rolling inside the safe, mingling with a woman’s quiet sobs and echoing down the corridor long after they should have faded.
