Prologue, Chapter 1 - Chapter 3 Summary

Dragon Bones is a story of politics, love, religion, archeology, power, and greed set in the middle of China, on the Yangtze River. As Liu Hulan and David Stark investigate murder and theft at Site 518, they find themselves pulled into the depths of a religious cult, the All Patriots Society. Over the course of their investigation, Hulan finds herself questioning her own past, as David questions the future.

In the prologue, readers follow the body of a deceased man through the waters of the Yangtze River. For miles, his body passes villages, factories, and cliffs, and the body becomes more disfigured. A young boy kicks it, thinking it is the body of a playing friend as they swim. He backs away in disgust but says nothing. The body continues to float through the Three Gorges, and the...