Prologue, Part One: The Tiger Leaps: Chapters 1 - 3 Summary

Prologue: The prologue, which is written entirely in italics and may be missed by some readers, recounts the events of Dreams of Joy's prequel, Shanghai Girls. Written from Joy's perspective, the reader learns that Joy has recently discovered her family's plethora of lies. She had been raised her entire life believing that Pearl was her mother and May was her aunt, only to learn that May is actually her birth mother and Pearl is actually her aunt. Her birth father is an artist named Z.G. who lives in the People's Republic of China. The man Joy always believed was her father, Sam, committed suicide by hanging himself after the FBI demanded that he turn in Joy as a communist sympathizer. Rather than harm his family, Sam chose to...