The book charts lukes life and work, commencing with his childhood in colonial hong kong and his apprenticeship with a british architectural firm before focusing on his education at the architectural association (1927-30). in london, luke was offered the post of head of the architecture department at the newly established bank of china, where im peis father was a senior figure. luke spent the next seven years in the inimitable city of shanghai designing buildings all over china for the bank before the japanese invasion in 1937 forced him, and countless others, to flee to the proxy wartime capital of chongqing. in 1945 he returned to shanghai where he formed a partnership with four other chinese graduates of uk universities; but civil war (between the communists and nationalists) once again caused him and others to uproot in 1949.