Hong Kong Affair

While transferring stateside after serving three years as a POW in Korea, U.S. Army soldier Steve Whalen stops in Hong Kong to examine the Fang Ling tea plantation, which he has inherited half of from his late father. Steve visits the office of the plantation's business manager and attorney, Louis Jordon, where Jordon regretfully discloses that Fan Ling, which Steve owns jointly with Hong Kong native Li Noon, was ruined by blight three years earlier and has since been unproductive. When Steve shows Jordon a new box of Fan Ling's staple, Iron Lady Buddha tea, and asks how it could be on the market, Jordon assures him that it is an old box. Jordon agrees to take Steve to meet Li Noon and view the plantation the following day. In the interim, the lawyer arranges for his secretary, Chu Lan, to show Steve Hong Kong. While touring the city, the couple is followed, then attacked by two of Jordon's henchmen, but Steve drives them off. Professing ignorance about why they were attacked, Chu Lan invites Steve back to her luxurious home. There she explains that she has survived Hong Kong's incredible poverty only through Jordon's long-time help. Charmed by Chu Lan's reserve and melancholy air, Steve becomes attracted to her. Afterward, Jordon meets Li Noon, who receives the news of Steve's arrival with pleasure until Jordon discloses that they must harvest the entire tea crop immediately and store it to convince Steve that the plantation is worthless. Confused, Li Noon demands an explanation and Jordon reveals that he has been pocketing the profit from Steve's share of the plantation. Shocked, Li Noon expresses anger at the betrayal of his former partner's son and refuses to go along with Jordon. The lawyer forces Li Noon's compliance, however, by threatening not to help free Li Noon's son, who is being held in a Communist Shanghai prison. The next day, Chu Lan contacts Steve with the news that Jordon has been delayed and must postpone their trip. Angry and growing increasingly suspicious of Jordon and Chu Lan, Steve rents a car and drives into the country, arriving at the plantation by early evening. There, Steve is surprised to recognize Sou May, a young woman he met by accident upon arriving in the city. At dinner, Li Noon promises to show Steve the fields the next day. In the morning, however, Li Noon is inexplicably evasive and Steve presses Sou May into taking him over the property. Steve is dismayed when they come upon a large barren section which Sou May admits was full of tea bushes two days earlier. Examining the ground, Steve discovers freshly cut, healthy tea roots. After Sou May departs, Steve continues investigating and finds numerous bags of fresh tea leaves hidden in a distant barn, prompting him to accuse Li Noon of deceit and robbery. Li Noon offers to explain, but is abruptly silenced by a gunshot meant for Steve from a mysterious assailant in the bushes. Steve pursues the fleeing assailant, sailor Jim Long, who is Sou May's father and Jordon's accomplice. Jim and Sou May escape in a waiting car. Steve catches up with them when Jim's car stalls, but Jim knocks him out and escapes in Steve's car. Unaware of Jim's relationship with Sou May, Steve does not question her they walk back into the city. There Steve telephones Chu Lan, who passes on a cryptic message before the phone goes dead. Steve then contacts British Police Inspector Stuart, who agrees to investigate. Following Chu Lan's directions, Steve goes to a coffin store where the proprietor gives him a note with the address of a shipping company's warehouse. Meanwhile, onboard his small boat, Jim and Sou May receive a package from a passing freighter. Upon arriving at the warehouse, Steve is attacked by two of Jordon's accomplices and taken prisoner. Jordon and Chu Lan board Jim's boat to pick up the package, but Jim reveals he does not have it and demands to end his entanglement with Jordon. To placate Jordon, Chu Lan offers to retrieve the package that Jim has hidden in the tea shipment at the warehouse. Upon arriving there, Chu Lan dismisses the guards and frees Steve, confessing that she has been forced to work for Jordon, who plotted to force Steve out of Hong Kong. Chu Lan divulges that the mysterious package contains opium, which Jordon regularly buys with Steve's share of the tea profits then sells using the tea shipments as cover. Eager to protect Chu Lan, Steve follows her when she returns to Jim's boat. Tipped off to a large incoming narcotics shipment, Stuart has surrounded the pier. When Jim attempts to prevent Jordon from retrieving the package from Chu Lan, the lawyer shoots him and forces her onboard a small passing fishing boat. Steve and the police give chase. Distraught over her father's grave injury, Sou May calls on all the local fisherman to block Jordon's path, allowing the police to capture him.