It's the year 1784 and the shogun rules with an iron fist . . . except within the walled pleasure quarter of Yoshiwara. Inside the Great Gate, samurai law does not apply, and it's women who pull the strings. Magistrates bow to courtesans, prostitutes snub potentates, and those with the most power beg favor from those with the least. There is no greater spectacle in all the land. But beneath the surface runs a deadly current of greed, deception . . . and murder.

Takahisa Takeda will never forgive the first shogun for rewarding his ancestor's loyalty with more honor than land. He's the head of a venerable samurai family who can barely make ends meet, until the night he witnesses a terrible crime and seizes the opportunity to turn tragedy into gold.

Birdie is just a child when she's chosen to serve Yoshiwara's number one courtesan and given a new name at the House of Treasures. She longs to become one of the beauties strutting down the promenade under a crimson parasol, entertaining lords of the land in robes that cost more than a laborer makes in a year. But the higher she climbs, the more she realizes those she trusts with her life might also betray her in a heartbeat, and she'll need all her wit and wiles just to survive.

Caught between two powerful men whose futures both hinge on the night that made Takeda rich, Birdie's only way out is to discover why the victim had to die, and hunt down a witness whose life depends on not being found. Only then can she decide whose crime to punish and whose to keep hidden. If she chooses right, she will win her freedom. If she chooses wrong, she'll be forever trapped by the fate she's trying so desperately to escape.