Beginning in a small village under Japanese occupation on the Chinese-Russian border in the final days of World War II, White Gardenia tells the story of a White Russian mother and daughter, separated by war. From the glamorous nightclubs of Shanghai to the harshness of the Siberian wasteland, from a desolate island in the South China Sea and to a new life in post-war Australia, and finally to Cold War Moscow, White Gardenia sweeps across cultures and continents.

Both mother and daughter must make sacrifices to survive. But is the price of survival too high? Most importantly of all, can they ever find each other again?