Xu Donglin has spent seventeen years in the seafood export trade. He can tell clients all about the old ports of Incheon and Busan, but has never properly visited Penglai Pavilion, right on his doorstep. One sea fog later, he falls into Mount Danya in the fifth year of Jiayou, Northern Song dynasty. Penglai Pavilion has yet to be built; the mountain is home only to a Sea God temple about to move west, and the Liang family, who make their living from a tea-soup stall beside it.
The Liang family's stall is facing eviction, and Xu Donglin has no household registration. He can only search for someone to vouch for him while helping Liang Xiaoman move the stove and find a new place. Soon, a ship carrying timber for the pavilion goes missing. Liang Xiaoman's younger brother is aboard.
Xu Donglin knows how to read cargo manifests and track down altered figures, but he doesn't understand ancient customs, let alone how to build towers or ships. All he can do is work with carpenters, boatmen, and minor officials to get to the bottom of accounts that refuse to add up, a ship that never returned, and the famous pavilion that would one day be known across the land: who were the ordinary people forced to pay the price for it first?
