A novel full of exoticism, adventure, mixed emotions and love during the Second World War. It was 1943 and the Japanese army, which totally controls the city of Shanghai, sets up the only Jewish ghetto in the world which is not controlled by the Nazis. Leon and Norah Blumenthal, a Jewish couple who had landed in Shanghai in 1939, when the city was still a free port and held all its fascination intact, are recluded in an "area restricted for the stateless". Nevertheless, not all is lost, since they rely on the help of the Spanish Consul in Shanghai, Dr. Martín Nobolí. This one, in turn, will have to face Cornel Fukuda, the chief of the Japanese secret police. For this purpose he counts on Nube Perfumada (Perfumed Cloud), an old sexual slave of the Japanese army, who will turn out to be the key figure of this highly passionate and moving novel.