In the final years of the 19th century violence and turmoil led to the collapse of Chinas Qing Dynasty Valeda Duval a beautiful and independent French colonialist and Kyungsu Lee a Korean minister stationed in Peking fall in love after he saves her life during the bloody Boxer Rebellion Breaking racial and societal taboos on both sides they remain together and have a son Throughout Asia European and Japanese imperialism reaches its height Japan occupies Korea brutally snuffing out its independence while advancing into Manchuria as its first step in conquering all of China Minister Lee suddenly a man without a country must go into exile quotIn the Dragons Wakequot is the story of how he transforms himself from a traditional aristocrat a Confuciantrained royalist and servant of his king into a radical leader of the antiJapanese resistance and secret arms buyer for the liberation movement All the while Lee raises his mixedrace son to be a patriot and future leader of the resistance But conflict threatens his family Valeda doesnt want her son to be a fighter Around them the dynasty collapses Sun Yatsen tries to replace it with a republic but the northern warlords want a new empire Anarchy cripples China as the boy grows to manhood in the midst of this chaos and bloodshed His story is told in book two
