Through the brutal invasion of China in 1937 by Imperial Japanese forces, tens of hundreds of civilians and prisoners of struggle are murdered and ladies raped in what is understood merely as "The Rape of Nanking." This docudrama is a stirring account of a small band of brave American missionaries who select to remain in Nanking to attempt to shield 1 / 4 million weak Chinese language civilians who're trapped in a metropolis dominated by a savage, uncontrolled military. Their tales are introduced vividly to life by precise real-time letters and diaries as they bear witness to one of many worst wartime atrocities in historical past.