Yedo

Young Pev Fitzpaine arrived in Yedo, the former name for Tokyo, in 1860 totally unprepared by an Oxford education and genteel Devonshire upbringing for his new life at the first British Legation in Japan in two hundred and fifty years.

He was quick to appreciate that remote country's poetic beauty and exotic customs, but found the unashamed sensuality of a relationship with the prostitute Umegawa deeply disturbing.

Tada Shoh, a samurai doctor, is assigned to the British Legation and must balance his loyalty to Japan with his interest in learning about western medicine