San Francisco, 1940. Miranda Corbie -- thirty-three-year-old private investigator, Spanish Civil War nurse, and ex-escort -- waits impatiently in a Chinatown crowd. Fireworks explode as the city celebrates Chinese New Year with a Rice Bowl Party, a three-day-and-night carnival designed to raise money for China's war relief. Then Eddie Takahashi stumbles -- fatally shot -- into Miranda's life. And war comes home to San Francisco .