Just before the Communists took Tsing-Tao, a Russian woman escaped but went to ground. Six years later, her American husband hires Smith to try and find her.
Smith is abducted by the Nationalist Chinese underground and taken to Taiwan. There, he is asked to go back to Singapore to find a general who has details on what the Communists are planning.
Smith is contracted to protect a string of perfect pearls from a criminal who is after them. But the owner is murdered and the pearls stolen anyway, forcing China to chase the thief to Hong Kong.
Smith is hired by a young American girl who attempts to keep her uncle's salvage business going even after his death, but murder is a passenger on this cruise too.
Smith is hired to retrieve a copy of the Gutenberg Bible left behind in Indo-China during the war between France and the Viet Minh worth almost half a million dollars. But he soon finds out he's not the only one interested in the book.