Shanghai, 1941: In a city under siege unfolds an astonishing story of two men whose lives intertwine in crime and twisted friendship. Viennese Joe Farren rose to fame by cashing in on Shanghai’s desperate pleasure seeking. King of the chorus lines, his name was splashed in neon across the infamous Badlands nightclub, ‘Farren’s’. American fugitive Jack Riley, his fingertips acid-burnt, found a future in Shanghai as ‘The Slots King’. ‘Dapper Joe’ and ‘Lucky Jack’ collided, clashed and came together again in a frantic struggle to survive the city’s last days.

Paul French resurrects the denizens of old Shanghai’s badlands, the drug-running, the gambling, and the graft, vividly restoring this long overlooked side of the city’s history.