China, 1926. Jake Greenberg, an American expatriate and owner of a fashionable casino in Shanghai, arrives in Manchouli, a dusty little city straddling the Chinese-Russian border. Posing as a wine salesman and using a false passport supplied by British Intelligence, his mission is to smuggle two Russian anti-communists into Shanghai. They have a secret that the communists can't allow the world to know. But as soon as Jake crosses into Russia he senses something is very wrong. He is being watched. Soon the secret police are at his door and Jake and the Russians are on the run.