This story begins in Guangzhou China with the commencement of the Second Opium war. After the British bombardment of their home and city, two teenagers, a brother and younger sister, are sent by their parents to Tsin Chin Shan, the New Gold Mountain, in the colony of Victoria.

As Chinese, the siblings and their compatriots are outsiders in the goldfields. They are on the margins of colonial society, as are the poor Irish settlers with whom they find they have interests in common. Their interaction with the notorious Kelly Gang becomes a dangerous political alliance ...