Books in the The Straits Quartet series

In Volume 2 of The Straits Quartet, Charlotte Macleod is nineteen, pregnant, and alone in 1842. Through loss and pain, Charlotte will find a way to make a life with a man she does not love.

In Volume 3 of The Straits Quartet, young, beautiful and wealthy widow Charlotte Macleod leaves Batavia in the 1850s and returns to Singapore for the English education of her two young sons. She is determined not to be drawn back into a secret affair with Zhen, the married Chinese merchant, triad-member and man she loves.

In the fourth and final volume of the The Straits Quartet, Charlotte Macleod is the English concubine. Her love affair with Zhen, wealthy Chinese merchant, is an open scandal to both the English and the Chinese communities. Singapore in 1860 is a vice-ridden town filled 'with the dregs of humanity from two continents.'