A land newly admitted to the Union already slipping beyond the reach of law.
Greystone arrives in the West as a newly sworn U.S. marshal, pursuing a Chinese fugitive linked to the death of President Zachary Taylor. What should be a routine arrest becomes a perilous journey through ports, jungles, and Gold Rush California—where violence is ordinary, authority is fragile, and hesitation can be fatal.
Shen walks another path. Haunted by his past, he carries the knowledge of Jincan, the Golden Silkworm—an ancient method of poison-making that kills without wound or witness, disguising murder as illness or chance. Part ritual, part craft, it binds him to forces older than any Western law.
As their paths converge, Greystone and Shen are drawn into a world where frontier justice collides with older systems of belief. Power is exercised quietly and without consequence. In a land obsessed with gold and reinvention, both men must confront what they carry—decide what they are willing to become.