On March 6, 1900, the bubonic plague claimed its first victim on American soil: Chinese immigrant Wong Chut King. Empowered by racist pseudoscience, officials rushed to quarantine Chinatown. When corrupt politicians mounted a cover-up to obscure the threat, David Randall relates here, it fell to federal health officer Rupert Blue to save San Francisco from the plague—and the folly of prejudice.

"A complex tale of medicine, politics, race, and public health.… [Randall] does good work in revealing the clamorous clash of public and private interests surrounding the outbreak.… A tale that resonates with the outbreak of measles, mumps, and other supposedly contained epidemics today."—Kirkus Reviews