1927. CHINA IS IN TURMOIL. The Communist Party and the Kuomintang government, long at each others’ throats, are now locked into a conflict set to claim the lives of millions. History remembers the bodies and battlefields, but for some, fate was decided between the ciphers. Ji Zhenren’s mind is the Red Army’s prize asset. His task: to break the enemy’s near-impenetrable codes. With Ji’s genius at the helm the retreating Red Army might just be able to turn the tables, but only if forbidden romance and political controversy don’t bring him crashing down first. From the dark alleys of Shanghai to hidden paths carved through snowclad mountains, an invisible war rages. In the silent world of the codebreaker, cracking the cipher means breaking the enemy. Anything less spells certain death.