Student Grey Hutchins comes to Tokyo seeking answers to what happened during the notorious Nanking Massacre in which, in one city, the Imperial Japanese Army killed up to 300,000 civilians. Only one man can help her, a survivor of the Massacre, and now a visiting professor at the prestigious university of Todai in Tokyo; a man who is rumoured to possess documentary evidence of Nanking. But first Grey must gain his trust. Increasingly desperate and alone, she accepts a job as a hostess at the "Some Like It Hot" club, an upmarket nightspot catering for Japanese businessmen and wealthy gangsters. One gangster dominates, an old man in a wheelchair guarded by a nurse with sharpened teeth, said to rely on a powerful elixir for his continued wealth and well-being. It is an elixir which other members of the club want for themselves, at any price.