As Sydney prepares for its grand role as host of the next Olympic Games, Scobie Malone is confronted with solving a scam that does nothing for the city’s image. Lurking beneath a facade of respectability, illicit deals are being struck and money from Hong Kong is being banked in large quantities. But whose money is it, and where is it really from?

The people responsible will eliminate anyone who is a potential security risk: students and businessmen are being publicly, and privately, executed - with the same sinister, systematic style. Meanwhile Scobie’s investigation is frustrated at every turn by a wall of silence as vast as the Great Wall of China, making progress impossible … until he finds the cracks which will lead him to the unexpected truth.