1908. The French rule Saigon. Georges-Minh, a Vietnamese national and Paris-educated physician, nurses a secret loathing for the French connections that have made him rich, even as they have torn his beloved country apart. With a group calling themselves the Mysterious Fragrance of the Yellow Mountains, Georges-Minh plots revenge, by creating a poison to mix into the Christmas dinner of a garrison of French soldiers. But the assassination attempt goes horribly wrong. Forced to flee into the deep jungles of the outer provinces, Georges-Minh must care for his infant son, manage the growing madness of his wife, and elude capture by the hill tribes and the small--but lethal--pockets of French sympathizers.