A spoof of 1930's oriental movie melodramas, this wild concoction by the author of Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, Psycho Beach Party and The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, recounts the outrageous story of a notorious young beauty who visits Shanghai in 1931 with her elderly husband, a British diplomat. Soon Lady Sylvia (who can be played by a woman or a man as in the New York production) is involved in a steamy affair with a mysterious warlord. She incurs the wrath of his jealous mistress and his most trusted advisor while becoming ensnared in an exotic world of opium addiction, drug smuggling and white slavery where even branding her derriere with a red-hot poker is not forbidden.