Summary

Chapter 1 takes place in March 1923. The protagonist Mei Ling’s ancestral village in Guangdong Province, China. Mei Ling’s family is gathered at home around her eldest sister, whom she calls Jah Jeh, as the girl awaits news from a matchmaker. The family is poor, having lost all of their status and most of their wealth during a failed rebellion in their region, and is counting on marrying their daughter away to secure her future and free the family of a financial burden. The matchmaker arrives, asking for a bribe to share the news. Mei Ling’s defeated father pays, and the family finds out that a Chinese man living in California is in search of a new wife to replace his first wife who died mere days earlier. He has a three-year-old son, is a merchant, and will ask his wife to...