Summary

This first section of the book introduces Charles, Saina, Grace, and Barbara with separate chapters, each focused through a particular character's perspective. The novel opens with Charles Wang already in financial ruin, and in the first pages, the reader learns that he saw his failures as something tied to him through genetics, or as the continuation of the larger Wang family's misfortunes. He was a cosmetics manufacture who grew up in Taiwan after the Chinese Communist revolution forced all wealthy land owners to flee, but even in exile, his family owned a manufacturing plant. The Urea, or nitrogen-rich substance, they produced turned out to be a necessary ingredient in high-end cosmetics, and in a matter of time, he made an empire worth $200 million. Despite his success in America, his focus was always on returning to China and recovering his family's land.

Saina Wang...