She was young, beautiful, and vulnerable. In 1892, Bessie Hewes Hetherington was an American navy wife awaiting the arrival of her husband, Lieutenant James Henry Hetherington, in his ship's home port in Japan. George Gower Robinson, Yokohama's most eligible bachelor, saw Bessie and knew he had to possess her. She fell victim to his scandalous advances. Unable to stop them, her husband killed Gower, setting the stage for an unprecedented trial in the American consular court. The court delivered a vigorously debated verdict, and then the story disappeared.

This book tells the story of this love triangle and murder trial for the first time and explores broader aspects of professional and personal, societal and international life in the late nineteenth century world. Life as a navy wife, the private and public life of an American naval officer, and the elite expatriate life in Japan's most prosperous and internationally diverse treaty port are featured. Also discussed is the media's transformative power to deliver the story of "the tragedy in Yokohama" across oceans and continents.