Everyone in Shanghai knows that Gu Wanyin, owner of Yunshang Pavilion, has two rules: she won’t accept fabric of unknown origin, and she won’t make clothes for the dead.
That is, until Marshal Fu kicks down her shop door and tosses a blood-soaked old military uniform onto her worktable.
“Gu Wanyin,” he says, his gaze raking across her pale face like a blade. “Either you take this job, or I’ll shut down your shop for treason.”
From then on, garments carrying profound love, hate, joy, and sorrow come to her one by one: a rare opera costume that weeps and sings in the dead of night, an exquisite cheongsam that can let a famous actress possess its wearer, a red silk apron that drifts down the river with a baby’s finger bones hidden inside...
With needle as her pen and thread as her words, she listens to the untold stories woven into each garment and lays to rest the lingering obsessions within.
The cold, hard-edged young marshal, who believes in neither ghosts nor gods, becomes her sharpest blade and most steadfast ally.
Until a tattered imperial dragon robe embroidered with secret royal insignia burns her shop to the ground and brings a shocking secret to light...
What she must lay to rest was never just the spirits in the garments. As the land falls to ruin, she must help the souls of countless people finally find peace.
