In the fall of 1929 a small group of Jesuits sailed from Seattle en route, to China where they were to begin - and end - their lives as missionaries. Among their number was Francis Albert Rouleau, 28 years of age, tall, blond, bashful, highly tensioned, esthetic, refined, and in delicate health... For what reasons, other than his own spiritual pleadings, he was selected as a missionary to that far-off Asiatic land - a land where, presumably, the first requisites of a missionary are the blessings of vigorous health, a strong back and a copper stomach - was quite beyond the appreciation of his brothers and sister. But the Society of Jesus can be expected to do the unexpected...