1843. In the aftermath of the First Opium War, the Treaty of Nanking forces China, having been closed to the Western world for over a century, to open its doors - just ajar, but enough to get a small foothold in this country. The Horticultural Society dispatches levelheaded, withdrawn and taciturn Robert Fortune, one of its gardeners, to explore and collect the legendary flower treasures China has always been famed for. Having left his wife and children at home, Fortune sets out on this journey to the end of the world.

The flora he discovers in China is overwhelming, unlike everything he has ever seen. With high ambitions but far from being an adventurer, Fortune struggles to get along in this strange country, full of strange and often hostile people, with strange customs and languages no one has prepared him for. And shrewd and feisty Wang, his guide and interpreter, is not always of help.

His path crosses with that of Lian, a young master swordswoman wandering through the lands, fighting for justice and for the weak. As enigmatic as China itself, fragile and tough at the same time, Lian not only changes Fortune´s perspective on China: she also wakes his sensuality and a sense for magic and deeper truths.

An encounter that starts to change both of them, and slowly, the boundaries between reality and dream get blurred.

When he lifts the secrets of tea and conceives the bold plan to smuggle the jealously guarded Green Gold; out of the country, Fortune begins to lose himself in China …