Who could have imagined that the Chinese opium trade, American feminism, and the abolitionist crusade could be connected, or that an entire branch of a prominent Boston commercial family could have been erased from the historic record for a century-and-a-half, or that a multi-decade saga to restore them to history would begin when archaeology students excavated Chinese potsherds from a Native American archaeological site atop a remote ridge on the north coast of California?

Archaeologist Tom Layton follows those potsherds to their origin on the 1850 shipwreck of the Frolic, a clipper brig, owned by American merchants who hauled opium from India to China. Those potsherds lead to George Dixwell-opium expert, inventor, and part owner of the Frolic-and to clues about his marriage in China to Hu Ts'ai-shun, a Manchu woman. Further research leads to the women of Dixwell's family tree who turned out to be writers and activists-aunt Judith Sargent Murray, the grandmother of American Feminism, and her niece Henrietta Sargent, a fierce abolitionist who reported the first public speech of an escaped slave-Frederick Douglass.

Finally the sherds lead Layton to Ts'ai-shun's four American great-granddaughters who had preserved a trove of letters, photos, and diaries that enabled this story to be told.Layton reveals his scientifically documented archaeological record then dons the hat of a novelist, filling in the spaces among the facts, bringing these characters to life, and producing an unforgettable read-a true adventure revealing the successes, failures, passions, and secrets of a 19th-century American family.