The Secrets of the Sakura Girls

Love and death in
a Japanese brothel in nineteenth-century Singapore.

It is
Singapore in 1870 and Aoki is a karayuki-san.

Aged fifteen, Aoki was sold by her father and shipped to Singapore from
Japan, where she was bought into the world of prostitution. In a chance
encounter with Reverend Harry Gilmore
and his nine-year-old son Rupert from England, she finds herself drawn to
their domicile life. Indomitable, empathetic and resolute, she is determined
to break free of her life of prostitution and live the life she has always
dreamt of.

Against the backdrop of the savage decapitation of one of Aoki’s
Chinese customers, Aoki and Harry’s feelings forge themselves into an
unexpected bond. Meanwhile, detective superintendent Karupan, of the island’s
police, strives desperately to solve the crime and fend off possible
religious riots. In a race against time, will the dreadful crime be solved
and will Aoki and Harry’s budding emotions grow into something permanent?