Christopher Banks moves to London and begins establishing himself as a detective after leaving Cambridge.

Banks first notices the captivating Sarah Hemmings at an upscale London dinner party.

Banks recalls his childhood in Shanghai's International Settlement, where he befriended a Japanese boy named Akira.

Nine-year-old Christopher watches his father leave for work, only to learn the man never arrived at his office.

Uncle Philip takes young Christopher on a morning errand, then abruptly abandons him alone in a Shanghai crowd.

Christopher runs home to find the house in turmoil — his mother has disappeared without explanation.

Banks becomes legal guardian to Jennifer, an orphaned girl from Canada, and hires a nanny to care for her.

Banks arrives back in Shanghai, determined to expose the criminal network responsible for his parents' disappearance.

At a Palace Hotel party, Banks meets Grayson and MacDonald, who offer help with his investigation.

Banks dismisses Lieutenant Chow's guidance and ventures alone into the bomb-torn Shanghai warrens to find the indicated house.

Deep in the ruined warrens, Banks finds a wounded Japanese soldier and becomes certain the man is his old friend Akira.

Banks reaches the house but finds no trace of his parents — only ruins, a dead family, and a small injured girl.

At a house arranged by Grayson, Banks confronts the Yellow Snake and discovers the man is Uncle Philip.

Banks finds his elderly mother at Rosedale Manor in Hong Kong, but she does not recognize him as her grown son.

Banks learns of Sarah's death and accepts a quieter life, unsure whether either of them ever found lasting peace.

Christopher Banks establishes himself as a detective in London while haunted by the childhood disappearance of his parents in Shanghai. He is drawn to Sarah Hemmings, a fellow orphan with ambitious social aspirations, and takes in a young orphaned girl named Jennifer as his ward. Returning to Shanghai as an adult, he navigates a wartime city where intelligence figures obstruct and mislead him at every turn. His obsessive search drives him into the bomb-torn warrens of Shanghai, where his grip on reality begins to fracture. The house he sought holds no answers, and it is Uncle Philip — revealed as the Yellow Snake — who finally dismantles the fiction Banks has built around his parents' fate. After decades of searching, Banks finds his elderly mother in Hong Kong and must accept a reunion that offers no restoration of the childhood he lost.

The central mystery of Banks's missing parents and his lifelong quest to solve it.

Banks reconnects with his old school friend Osbourne, who remembers Banks as an odd and awkward young man.

Banks has an uneasy dinner with Colonel Chamberlain, who remembers a tearful child Banks cannot recognize as himself.

Sarah loudly demands entry to the Meredith Foundation dinner at Claridge's Hotel, causing a scene before being admitted.

Banks and Sarah share a private moment on a hotel balcony, where she reveals her orphaned past and her ambitions.

Banks recalls his mother furiously confronting his father over the family's dependence on Morganbrook and Byatt's opium trade.

Akira returns from Japan changed and frightened, telling Christopher he felt rejected there and feared being sent back permanently.

The two boys secretly enter servant Ling Tien's forbidden room and steal a bottle of lotion, then panic about returning it.

After his father's disappearance, young Christopher and Akira invent elaborate detective scenarios in which they find and rescue the missing man.

Banks finds Sir Cecil drunk and fixated on roulette at the seedy Lucky Chance gambling house in Shanghai.

Banks visits his old Shanghai childhood home with Morgan and finds a Chinese family living respectfully inside.

Lieutenant Chow leads Banks to the rooftop to survey the devastated warrens and explain why reaching the house is so difficult.

Japanese soldiers enter the ruined house, nearly shoot Banks, then escort him safely back to their headquarters.

Uncle Philip reveals that Banks's father never disappeared — he abandoned his family for a mistress and died of typhoid in Singapore.

A care worker explains how Banks's mother arrived at Rosedale Manor through charity, previously held in a mental institution under the name Diana Roberts.

An elderly Banks apologizes to Jennifer for his many absences after she attempts suicide as an adult woman.

Banks navigates London society with fragile confidence, encountering old acquaintances whose memories of him clash sharply with his own self-image. His childhood in Shanghai is detailed through flashbacks of his parents' quarrels over opium, Akira's troubled return from Japan, and the boys' private games and small adventures in the Settlement. In Shanghai as an adult, Banks confronts the decrepitude of former heroes and finds his old home transformed beyond recognition by a Chinese family. The war zone closes in around him as he pushes toward the house, and Japanese soldiers eventually escort him back to safety. Uncle Philip's confession strips away the last illusions about Banks's father, and the sad history of his mother's identity in a Hong Kong care home adds a final layer of painful revelation. Jennifer's attempted suicide in the novel's closing pages underscores the lasting cost of orphanhood across all three characters linked by loss.

The relationships, memories, and secondary revelations that shape Banks's world.

Banks introduces himself to Sarah at the Waldorf Hotel expecting his detective reputation to impress her, but she remains indifferent.

As a child leaving Shanghai, Christopher insists on staying because he believes detectives are still actively searching for his father.

Banks receives a Chinese newspaper clipping containing a photograph of the warlord Wang Ku, whom he believes he once saw as a child.

Young Christopher recalls the warlord Wang Ku arriving at their home and his mother screaming that the man is an agent of the devil.

Banks prepares to leave England and tells his ward Jennifer he must travel to Shanghai to confront the crimes of his past.

At a wedding reception, Banks discovers that Sarah has married the much older diplomat Sir Cecil Medhurst.

Banks tracks down the once-celebrated Inspector Kung and finds him a gaunt, bedridden opium addict at a seedy inn.

Sarah privately asks Banks to abandon his investigation and sail with her to Macao to start a new life.

Banks finds Sarah waiting in the back of a small shop and they share their first kiss before a clue sidetracks him.

Banks's driver, seeking Yeh Chen's old address, inadvertently leads the car deep into the active war zone of Chapei.

Banks's driver writes directions in Chinese and refuses to go further, leaving Banks stranded on foot at the edge of the fighting.

Banks learns that Grayson is the real intelligence agent and MacDonald handled protocol — the opposite of what Banks had assumed throughout.

Japanese soldiers inform Banks that the wounded man he believed was Akira was actually a Chinese military informant.

Uncle Philip confesses he partly surrendered Banks's mother to Wang Ku because of his own long-suppressed desire for her.

Banks's mother grows still when she hears the childhood nickname Puffin, recalling her lost son but not recognizing the man before her.

Banks's emotional journey is driven by a series of pivotal moments that force him to confront the gap between his constructed memories and a far more troubling reality. Early encounters with Sarah Hemmings and glimpses of the warlord Wang Ku begin to loosen the framework of stories he has built around his childhood. His decision to leave England and his ward Jennifer marks the point of no return in his obsessive mission. In Shanghai, the illusion of progress collapses as Kung proves broken, Sarah's invitation to escape goes unanswered, and Banks drives himself into the chaos of the war zone. The shattering of his belief that the wounded soldier was Akira, combined with Uncle Philip's confession about his mother's fate and his own secret benefactor, strips away the defining fantasies of his life. His mother's partial recognition — remembering the child named Puffin but not the man standing before her — delivers a bittersweet resolution that finally forces Banks to mourn what was truly lost.

The key decisions, discoveries, and turning points that reshape Banks's understanding of his own life.