During the 1851 Great Exhibition in London, two womens lives become irrevocably intertwined when they both fall victim to a nefarious underground fraternity of ex-soldiers from Englands upper crust who have sworn their lives to defending the British Empireas well as their own decadent lifestyles. In this first volume, young rebel Jennifer Winterfield and the mysterious Kitamakura from Japan forge an unlikely alliance along with Jennifers doctor uncle and a street urchin named Pickles. Together they lay the groundwork for a criminal organization that will go on to sow terror in the hearts of the colonialists and industrialists who tried to put them down."Aside from the many outstanding characters inhabiting the pages of Shi, the backgrounds and settings are simply put, outstanding." The Pullbox.