A gripping novel of suspense, The Apprentice takes place in a remote mountain inn in northernmost Japan, where a raging blizzard has brought together wayfarers who share only growing suspicion of one another.It is the winter of 1903 and the country is beset with smallpox and a brewing war with Russia. In the flickering shadows of the crowded rooms, the apprentice, charged with running the inn during the owner's absence, finds himself attracted to one of the lodgers. His involvement with the mysterious traveler plunges him headlong into murder, passion, and heart-stopping chases through the snow.