From the late night of July 31 to the early morning of August 3, 1949, in the final seventy-two hours before Changsha's peaceful liberation, undercurrents churn throughout the city. Every faction plots its own departure and its own future, while one person watches the myriad faces of the world with cold detachment.
The man who betrayed his beliefs all those years ago refuses to believe he was wrong, even as defeat looms. So he stirs up trouble in this rebuilt ancient city, all to recreate the tragedy of the past, all to... kill his former self.
At the Yuehua Teahouse on the banks of the Xiang River, Jiang Yuehua, the owner and underground Communist Party courier codenamed "Xiangfei," receives a top-secret mission: the Changsha station of the Military Statistics Bureau has launched Operation Ashen City, set to blow up the entire city at 3 a.m. on August 3.
The only thing that can stop the disaster is the two-volume microfilm copy of the Final Demolition Plan for Changsha's Defenses. One volume has been deliberately released by the station chief of the Military Statistics Bureau in Changsha, "Silver Fox," as bait to lure out Communist operatives in the city. The other volume and its decoding card are still in his hands.
Silver Fox is a schemer skilled in psychological manipulation. He casts his bait only to identify his opponents, stir up infighting, and savor their fear.
Jiang Yuehua and her comrades have seventy-two hours to break the deadlock, seize the complete film amid the furious struggles between the Military Statistics Bureau, the Green Gang, the Boatmen's Guild, and the city defense forces, decode the coordinates, and disarm 136 bombs. Her Yuehua Teahouse is itself bomb site number 31.
A deadly battle over the lives and politics of Changsha's citizens unfolds in teahouses, at docks, in churches, through underground rivers, and beneath the waters of the Xiang River.
Conviction wrestles with suspicion; rescue battles destruction. Beneath the calm of everyday life, a surging conspiracy has long been concealed. Everything will reach its decisive moment here and now!
