Which Reminds Me

Yes, Rose Alfaro only wishes that she had been in charge of the passport office, specifically in Shanghai in 1916, when something happened there. Perhaps some passports were confiscated, that is the only thing that can be sort of guessed, because new passports were issued in 1917. But why and the details of that are not clear. Given that Rose Alfaro was not in charge of the passport office, then the other clue would be her close connection to Mr. Sobokin who was signing the reissued passports, who seems to be the center of her very tiny universe, and I am only guessing there also. Anyway, that is not very much upon which to base the plot line of your stalled fictional novel. So you just have nothing. And I don't even know how I figured that out by osmosis.