The Painted Veil

A pure white veil represents the innocent; the title of the book alludes to the loss of innocence. Set in London and Hong-Kong in the 1920s. The book depicts the falling of a beautiful but shallow Kitti Fane.

When Kitti's husband, a bacteriologist, discovers her affair with another man, he forces her to accompany him to Hong Kong, the heart of a cholera epidemic.