When Aircraftman First Class Peter Saunders of the Royal Air Force leaves England for the Far East in 1951, he is only eighteen years of age. His two-and-a-half-year tour of duty takes him briefly to Hong Kong and Malaya before being posted as a cook to RAF Changi, Singapore. For an adventurous young man such as Peter, Singapore in the early 1950s holds all the promise of the Orient-exotic surroundings. unusual customs and mesmerizing women. Peter soon meets and falls in love with a local Chinese girl but only later does he learn she is not entirely what she seems.