Los Angeles Times reporter Eve Diamond has spent the day at LAX, shadowing US Customs Supervisor William Maxwell. Hes got his eye on an incoming flight from Beijing via Seoul and Tokyo. The flights packed with the usual mass of humanity, ranging from the elegant Asian woman in the raspberry silk pantsuit who emerges from first class carrying a tired toddler to the scruffy students who have spent the long flight in economy. Suddenly, shots ring out. Three people are dead, including two men who appear to be businessmen and the silk-clad woman. The man who was booked on the flight as the dead woman's husband is missing. And the sad little toddler is left behind. Who is this child? Her passport says shes Japanese, but she doesnt seem to understand the language. Was the dead woman really her mother? Why has the child made 5 transatlantic flights in one year? And why does the INS whisk her immediately into hiding? Is this child a pawn in a larger scheme? Why would criminals care about this little girl? Any why is Eve, too, in danger? Eve knows she must try to find the answers. Her search takes her into LAs sleazy hotels, cybercafes, and into thr upscale milieu of trendy restaurants and high-powered human rights lawyers. Nothing is quite what it appears to be, and nobody seems to want Eve to find the child.