The first three victims were drugged, tied, labelled with a single word and a single number - then expertly beheaded The fourth victim was dispatched the same way but unlike the others he was an American diplomat No one knows why Yuan Tao returned to Beijing after a lifetime in America, why he took a lowly job at the American Embassy, nor why he died in the same bizarre way as three very different Chinese men Compelled to work together, Margaret Campbell and Li Yan tease out the killer's secrets The closer they come to the truth, the closer they come to a killer who is prepared to sacrifice anyone to conceal it