A terrorist threat is communicated to the U.S. Navy in Nushu, an old Chinese script understood only by women. Cody Cochrane, an American student, argues the threat is real. When the Navy encounters a radiation victim and a corpse is mutilated, Cochrane seems vindicated. Working with Lieutenant James Purdy, she implicates a Hong Kong movie star and businesswoman with ties to the Uighurs -- Muslim-Turkic rebels in western China. What if Purdy and Cochrane are wrong? Perhaps nothing is as it seems and the real threat is yet to be discovered.