Lily Rose Larsen loved spending her childhood summers in Sag Harbor at her grandmother's quaint beach cottage. Their many shared activities, delicious private chats and Marina's tantalizing stories about her years in Hong Kong were treasured memories for a young adventurous woman. Still honoring that close bond with her grandmother, while working as an assistant events manager for a NYC hotel, she visits Marina frequently. Her grandmother's wisdom and life experiences give Lily Rose license to dream big.
When she meets a young gem dealer from Hong Kong at a New York trade show, Lily Rose is mesmerized. This unusual meeting along with her grandmother's blessing ignites Lily Rose's desire to travel. A world of gems and cultural diversity is at her fingertips and before she can think or breathe, she is planning an exchange year abroad.
A parting gift from her grandmother, an exquisite imperial jade dragon pendant, becomes the impetus to travel across the world in search of adventure and Marina's past. Although Hong Kong has changed since the early 60's, some things stayed the same. Lily Rose unwittingly finds herself unraveling an unlikely story, the crown jewel of stories, her grandmother held back.
While fighting to hold on to her treasured jade dragon pendant and her grandmother's happy memories, she discovers that not all stories have happy endings. Falling hopelessly in love while cultivating a much-needed ally at work, she befriends a 14k triad gangster's lonely and insanely talented daughter. Her new friends help her deal with her unraveling life and Marina's shocking past. As Lily Rose learns the real truth about her grandmother's life, she is robbed of the most valuable possession she has, Marina's imperial jade dragon pendant. In the midst of rising political unrest, Lily Rose wonders whether she'll be able to reclaim her stolen pendant and make it out of Hong Kong unscathed with her own stories to tell.