In Chinatown, two utility workers go underground to search for a water leak. They find instead a crack in the wall, and Jensen decides to widen it and see what's behind it. What he and his partner Miller find are Chinese artifacts they figure have been there since the 1906 earthquake. Jensen, hoping to find something he can sell, picks up an urn decorated with Chinese characters. Finding nothing but ashes inside, he dumps them out on the ground and keeps the urn.
The two workers split up, and suddenly Jensen is faced with a beautiful Chinese woman, a ghost who attacks him; his body disappears.
The following day Derek and the Legacy members receive a phone call from Lee Tzin-Soong, who is apparently a member of the Legacy, who suggests they read the article in the local Chinese paper about the missing worker, and then come see him. The reporter in the Chinese paper alludes to a possible ghost being involved.
Derek takes Rachel with him to meet his old friend Lee Tzin-Soong, who is a charming old Chinese gentleman with an extrasensory feel for the local Chinese community. He tells them that he sensed that the spirit and energy of Chinatown has been seriously disrupted by an unknown source. At this moment his granddaughter Mei Ling brings tea; Derek, who has not seen her since she was a young college student, is immediately attracted to the woman she has become; Rachel later remarks that the attraction appears mutual. She takes Derek and Rachel to the site of Jensen's disappearance, and leaves them to investigate. They discover the enlarged hole in the wall and bring out more artifacts for Lee Tzin-Soong to examine.
In Chinatown, a robbery of a Chinese shopkeeper by two white men is in progress. When the thieves get into their car they are faced by the angry female spirit who kills them (very messily); the shopkeeper witnesses this.
Lee Tzin-Soong identifies the objects Derek and Rachel found as funeral artifacts from the Temple of Azure Clouds, which was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. He dates them to approximately 1895, a time of great persecution of the Chinese in America. He relates the shopkeeper's story about the murder, who claimed the two men were carried off by a female "fox spirit"--a ghost that kills who, if not stopped, will kill again and again.
Back at the Legacy House, Alex and Nick have identified the location of the temple, important since a ghost tends to stay near to its resting place. As Derek and Nick go out to investigate further, Alex continues her research of the Chinese persecutions of the time. She tells Rachel that it reminds her of a story her great grandmother told her of how she was forced to witness her son's beating and hanging, and she feels as if nothing has changed.
That night in Chinatown, Derek and Nick discover a religious offering laid out in the street and Derek receives a vision of three hanged men. They hear screams and when they run to investigate they see the men hanging in the street just as in Derek's vision. Derek catches a glimpse of the Fox Spirit who causes the bodies to fall to the street. They are of course the bodies of the three missing men, and the funeral urn is hanging from the belt of the dead Jensen.
Lee Tzin-Soong cannot make out the characters on the urn, so they take it to the Legacy House to decipher with their equipment there. It is determined that it is the urn of Ga Ziyan, who died under tragic circumstances and whose spirit has been clouded by evil. Her ashes were sealed to prevent her spirit from seeking revenge, and her killing is revenge for desecrating the vault and preying on Chinese. Alex continues to search the historical records, and Mei Ling decides to stay over to "help with translations." Derek visits her that night in her room for a discussion about "old Chinese ghosts" and they end up making love.
Alex finds an old newspaper report about an anti-Chinese riot and a lynching of three Chinese men in the same street the bodies were found in--with an illustration of the scene identical to the one Derek and Nick had witnessed. However there are no names given in the white press report; the victims are just called "three Chinamen." No one was ever punished for it and they conclude that one of the men was a loved one of the ghost Ga Ziyan. It upsets Alex when she feels that Derek is brushing the ghost's pain off lightly, and she angrily tells him off. Rachel warns her not to let her anger hurt her, but sometimes it feels good to let it out.
Back in Chinatown, Lee has collected a box full of old newspapers and journals in an effort to discover who the lynched Chinese men were and any connection to the spirit. Derek is a bit worried about what is friend may think of what went on between him and Mei Ling, but she assures him that no explanations are necessary for her grandfather--or for her.
Lee finds the names he is looking for and discovers that the spirit was the fiancee of one of the lynched men, Tong Wah. He had not been cremated with proper ceremony but buried in a pauper's grave, and she vowed revenge. Her disapproving family had disowned her, and with nowhere to turn for help she committed suicide. She will not rest until Tong Wah receives the proper Buddhist ceremony.
The group splits up: Derek, Rachel and Mei Ling go underground to find the Temple and the spirit, while Nick, Alex and Lee go to the cemetery to try to find Tong Wah's body to cremate in proper Buddhist ceremony. The earth has shifted underground, and Derek's group discovers the entrance to the Temple. Inside there are many candles lit and an altar with a shrine to Tong Wah; Ga Ziyan is kneeling there. The ghost is ready to attack the party until they convince her they are trying to help and tell her what they are trying to do for her and Tong Wah. When she suddenly disappears to go the cemetery, Derek uses his cell phone to warn Nick that she's coming and of possible danger to them.
At the cemetery, Alex and Nick have separated from Lee in the search and have found and unearthed the coffin of Tong Wah when the spirit arrives. She doesn't trust them at first, and in fact attacks Nick. But Alex reassures her that she feels her sadness, weeping for her; the spirit is touched. Lee Tzin-Soong arrives and performs the ceremony, cremating the body as the weeping spirit watches. She then floats up to the light and disappears, to be reunited with her lover.
Description last revised: 24 January 1997