In December 2017, author John Barnes discovered a manuscript he'd written thirty years before and forgotten. It described an eventful 1987 trip by rail into mainland China. His stateside marriage was failing and his career in jeopardy. He needed a successful meeting in Wuhan with a mysterious Mr. Lu. Wuhan flights were canceled due to bad weather, so Barnes took the train. His journey began in Canton on China's southern coast and ended 23 hours and 900 miles later at Wuhan in central China. The author uses his 30-year-old journey like a Rosetta Stone to understand who he is then and who he is now.

In the telling, Wuhan Train becomes not only one man's journey into a once poor and dispirited China's past but a parallel journey into the author's self.