An exiled librarian travelling through the 18th-century Chinese/Tibetan borderlands must learn the truth about a Jesuit priest's death before the Emperor arrives. Li Du was an imperial Chinese librarian; now he is an exile. Li Du befriends an elderly Jesuit astronomer. Hours later, the man is murdered in the home of the local magistrate, and Li Du suspects it was no random killing. Everyone has secrets-- the ambitious magistrate, the powerful consort, the bitter servant, the irreproachable secretary, the East India Company merchant, the nervous missionary, and the travelling storyteller who can't keep his own story straight. As Li Du investigates, he begins to suspect that the murderer intends to kill again. The eclipse is coming. Li Du must solve the murder before the sun disappears. If he does not, then someone-- perhaps Li Du himself-- will never again see its light.
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