Vanessa Yao

A quarter-life crisis causes a young Chinese-American woman to drop out of college and go on a life-changing journey to an isolated monastery in China. But when she returns to find her hometown overrun with crime and corruption, she uses her martial arts skills and Shaolin values to protect her community and bring criminals to justice…all while searching for the assassin who killed her Shaolin mentor and is now targeting her.

Detective Mike Sweeney has just moved with his wife and daughters from Toronto to his hometown of Durham County after the death of his partner. Hoping to escape the violent world of big city police work, Mike falls into a suburban world besieged by crime, abuse and murder.

Based on the true story of one courageous woman's journey from stardom as a gifted artist in glamorous 1930s Shanghai, through war and revolution and back again, sustained by her gift for beauty and an epic love that would not die.