Chie Miyazaki is wild and spoiled--the pampered child of a cadet line of the Imperial House of Japan. When she disappears in the United States accompanied by a slick Korean boyfriend, the Japanese want the problem solved quietly. They seek out Connor Burke, student of renowned sensei Yamashita. Burke is swept along in a covert search and rescue operation that turns into a deadly confrontation with a North Korean sleeper cell. Burke experiences the power of his sensei's decades old connections, and the secret that drove Yamashita from Japan now pulls him back into the service of the Imperial family.