A mysterious man rows from a boat to land, rides a horse to a tree and buries something. He goes to a morgue in London and confesses his sins to a corpse on the table. The man is his dead father.

A funeral procession for the dead man leads to a church. 

The mystery man, James Delaney, enters the church, much to the shock of everyone, including his half sister Zilpha.

A lawyer confronts Delaney about his father's will. He tells Delaney that the only inheritance is a small stretch of land on the Nootka sound on the western coast of the US. 

Delaney sees Zilpha at a wake and professes that he still loves her. 

The East India Tea Co. meets about the Delaney inheritance problem. 

Sir Stuart Strange, the head of East India Tea, discovers that he commanded Delaney as a child in the East India Tea regiment. 

East India Tea wants the Nootka land from Delaney, and plans how to get it from him.

Delaney goes to his old home, and meets his father's servant and friend, Brace.

They talk about the past few years involving his father, and how his father bought his mother as a Nootka Indian slave.

Delaney goes to the long abandoned Delaney Shipping Co. offices in London, and finds that it is now a brothel run by an old acquaintance named Helga.

He gives Helga two hours to vacate the Delaney offices or face violence.

Zilpha and her husband Thorne discuss how to get James to relinquish the Nootka land to her.

Delaney has his father's body exhumed and autopsied. 

Delaney has visions and speaks to dead bodies during the autopsy.

Delaney discovered that his father was poisoned with arsenic over a short period of time. 

Delaney goes to a farm and looks at a young boy being raised by an old servant. It is intimated that the boy is the son of Delaney and his half sister Zilpha from an incestuous relationship.

Delaney meets with Strange at East India Tea to discuss the Nootka land. It turns out that the land is a prime location for shipping to China via the island of Vancouver, anf East India wants the land badly. 

Delaney refuses to sell the land to East India.