The Lacquer Lady — F. Tennyson Jesse

Fanny Moroni leaves her Brighton school for the city of Mandalay. It is the 1880's, the last years of the opulent Kingdom of Burma, ripe for annexation by the empires of Europe. Fanny becomes the favorite of the Burmese Queen, and is swept into the magnificent court life of the Royal Palace. Now a lacquer lady in a scented world, Fanny falls in love and the destiny of the Kingdom is altered forever...