Mingzhi is the formidable Master Chai’s first grandson and groomed for a grand destiny from the very moment of his birth. But while Master Chai beats out orders with his dragon stick, there are threats to the future he has planned – from both within and without. Inside the mansion, there are secrets, lies, and plots; in the surrounding fields, there is the newly planted opium that signifies trouble ahead; and, further away, still, the foreign devils, intent on taking their own piece of the pie that is China.