"Raised in a prosperous family of 14th century Chinese merchants, by the age of sixteen Wu Johanna's world reaches from Japan in the east to Tajikistan in the west. It's a world seen from camelback, through tent flaps, and in the cool, shaded caravanserai where travelers and traders gather along the Silk Road. Hers is a world of spice merchants and pearl divers, bandits and troubadours, servants and sheikhs. A world in which trust is more valuable than gold, and the right name can unlock a network of contacts from Japan to North Africa. Johanna is, after all, the granddaughter of Marco Polo. In the wake of her father's death, however, Johanna finds that lineage counts for little. Amid the shifting dynastic loyalities and political maneuverings of the Khan's disintegrating court, she must leave almost everyone and everything she knows behind. If she's to find a fture for herself, it will mean crossing thevast expanse of Asia to the very edge of the known world."--Publisher's description.