Justine and her close friend Ka work for the Paris fashion house of Schiaparelli in the early fifties, when French haute couture is bursting with glamour and intrigue. Each has a reason for making a lot of money rapidly. Together, they establish a pipeline to import opium from the Highlands of North Vietnam to the drawing rooms of their wealthy clients in France.
Organised crime in Saigon, controlling the opium trade under the patronage of powerful connections, moves to wipe out the competitive challenge presented by Justine and Ka. It becomes clear they are up against two extraordinary people. Justine, now a fashion model, was trained to operate undercover and kill silently by the British secret service in World War Two. Ka is Vietnamese and a top haute couture seamstress with threads of steel under her skin. Justine wants the money from the opium business to start a new life in politics, to put right the injustices of post-war France. Ka wants her share to help her family in Hanoi obtain treatment for her sick brother.
Justine calls on past wartime allegiances to strengthen her firepower and protect herself and Ka. Bill, a former RAF pilot is now flying contraband between Hanoi and Saigon. Henri and Leo are in the front line in the bitter struggle between France and Ho Chi Minh's freedom fighters. This powerful combination of friends go onto the attack as Justine and Ka fight back, and France faces its destiny in Indochina at the battle of Dien Bien Phu.