Summary

In Chapter 12, the time frame of the novel jets back 28 years to the time before Violet’s birth. Lucia Miniturn is now the narrator. She says she was sixteen when she first met Lu Shing. At the time, she says he looked like a Chinese emperor. She believes he is her spiritual twin. She plans on getting to know him completely.

Lucia has spent much of her young life pursuing her “Pure Self-Being.” She was born to free-thinking and eccentric parents. She believes her mother intended her to become a woman’s rights activist as she is named after Lucretia Mott. Her father has a collection of fetish object with which Lucia was even allowed to play with as a small child. Along with a book depicting different sexual positions, Lucia also finds a box of love letters to her...