Vancouver, Canada, 1989 – Present

Marie lives in Vancouver for the length of the novel. She, Ma, and Ai-ming spend much of their time in the small Jiang family apartment, which is full of Kai’s papers, letters, and music. After Ma dies, Marie moves to a new apartment, in part to escape the sense of suffocating memory that permeates her childhood home. Her new apartment looks over the port of Vancouver; watching ships come and go, she feels comforted by the cosmopolitan nature of her city, whose largeness allows her to remain anonymous even as she is paradoxically surrounded by memories of her parents and Ai-ming.

Shanghai Conservatory of Music, 1940s – 1966

The Conservatory was where Sparrow, Zhuli, and Kai studied, composed, and rehearsed music until it was shut down in 1966 after protestors accused its students and teachers of being rightist and bourgeois. The trio found a particular home in Sparrow...