From out of the blue, Sue Henderson receives a mysterious letter from an old firm of London solicitors. This tells her to collect a Captain's trunk that hasn't seen daylight for over a century. Inside the trunk is an exquisite jade Buddha, a stack of dusty diaries and an intriguing letter from her distinct grandmother. The diaries unfold to form a book called 'Mandalay', which records the gripping events which lead to Burma falling under British Imperial rule. Within the yellowing pages, sumptuous palaces, elephants, Buddhist rituals and unbridled love combine to create a sparkling Ruby for the British Throne. But how does the ancient writer of the diaries know so much about her distant descendant. And what was the true purpose of entombing the truck for over a century?