Conchita Montes

Diplomats, soldiers and other representatives of a dozen nations fend off the siege of the International Compound in Peking during the 1900 Boxer Rebellion. The disparate interests unite for survival despite competing factions, overwhelming odds, delayed relief and tacit support of the Boxers by the Empress of China and her generals.

A wealthy author's second wife begins to suspect that her 12-year old stepson may have murdered his mother, who mysteriously died in a bathtub accident.