"Tong War" describes feuds between Chinese gangs that ended in the 1920s. However, one threatens to break out in Portland, Maine, and PI Melodie Chang is dragged into the middle of it. It doesn't help that she's five months pregnant and that her husband, Brad, is one of the targets of this new feud. Mike Wei is beating up people around town. Melodie will discover that every preconceived notion she has about tong wars will be wrong. She will discover things about her husband that might threaten her marriage. Mostly, she will need to discover the true reason that war has broken out in Portland before it threatens the life of her unborn baby. Into Melodie's world comes a girl named Sylvia and her baby, Johnny. Can Melodie save them before Wei kills both of them? Who is she and what does she have to do with everything that is happening? And why does she insist that Melodie's friend, Candy Howard, needs her? The case will end only when Melodie can answer all these questions. Still, one of them will die before she does and that death will transform not just Melodie but all of them.