On the gold fields of the colonies, enemies are easily made. In the confines of a ship, they can turn deadly.

It is 1863 and Kitty and Rian Farrell have sailed their schooner Katipo III into Dunedin Harbour to answer a call for help from their friend Wong Fu. His daughter, Bao, has been kidnapped and taken to opium-ridden China.

The Farrells agree to retrieve the missing Bao, but as they sail closer to their quarry the stakes jump dramatically. And little do they know that the deadliest threat lies in their midst.

The Cloud’s Leopard’s Daughter takes us through dangerous and unpredictable shoals of love, lust, greed and opium, in search of not one, but two, fiery yet vulnerable women - puppets in other people’s calculated games.