"Set in the late 1980s, a literary thriller about two people stranded under mysterious circumstances in the South China Sea: Jess, a U.S. Navy Intelligence officer who is the first woman to serve on an aircraft carrier, and Zi Shan, who has been exiled by the Communist Party of China to a coral sprawl called Mischief Reef, where he's been tasked with dredging the ocean floor to create an island."--Provided by publisher.