Born and raised in a Malaysian fishing village, Ah Hock favors stability above all, a preference at odds with his rapidly modernizing surroundings. So what brings him to kill a man? This question leads a young, privileged journalist to Ah Hock’s door. While the victim has been mourned and the killer has served time for the crime, Ah Hock's motive remains unclear, even to himself. His vivid confession unfurls over extensive interviews with the journalist, herself a local whose life has taken a very different course. The process forces both the speaker and his listener to reckon with systems of power, race and class in a place where success is promised to all yet delivered only to its lucky heirs.

Phoebe is a factory girl who has come to Shanghai with the promise of a job. Gary is a country boy turned pop star who is spinning out of control. Justin is in Shanghai to expand his family’s real estate empire. He has long harbored a crush on Yinghui, who has reinvented herself as a successful Shanghai businesswoman. Yinghui is about to make a deal with Walter Chao, the five star billionaire of the novel, who has a hand in the lives of each of the characters.