Set in China as
America gets involved in WWI, Foreign Seed follows newly minted Vice
Consul Samuel Sokobin’s first case as he investigates the disappearance of
Frank Meyer (of Meyer Lemon fame), explorer for the U.S. Department of Foreign
Seed and Plant Introduction, when he disappears from a steamship on the Yangtze
River. A rugged, Dutch immigrant, Meyer made a living seeking foreign specimens
as a man without a country, a feeling Sokobin denies as he ticks off one more
year living in temporary housing in China and shielding himself from the
possibility of close friendship. Moreover, Meyer is rumored to be Jewish,
igniting the prejudice Sokobin can’t shake as the son of Jewish immigrant
laborers in New Jersey. Sokobin needs to find Meyer, and quickly, if the body
is to be properly cared for. Sokobin travels upriver with his enigmatic
interpreter, Mr. Lin, while fighting flaming visions of his fighter pilot
little brother’s apparent demise in France. Always the hotshot, young Ethan has
been missing for months, and Sokobin refuses to betray him by mourning him. The
search for Meyer leads Sokobin from Nanking to uncharted villages to the
streets of Shanghai, where he is confronted with his past and a love that is no
longer within his reach.