Three ships travel to Canton during the 1800s in this second part of Amitav's Ghosh's Ibis trilogy, following his critically acclaimed "Sea of Poppies" which was released in the US in 2008. In "River of Smoke," ship passengers – including a raja, a deckhand who's a girl in disguise and a horticulturist – see their lives collide in the Cantonese city of Fanqui-town.