Fortune and Fate

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon begins by introducing Minli, Ba and Ma, a family that is poor even within a poor village like The Village of the Fruitless Mountain. Minli sees her parents working hard every day and nothing coming of it. She is naturally restless and resents her family's fortune. When she hears enough stories from Ba, she heads off on her own to fix her family's fortune however she can. For a time, she believed that the Old Man of the Moon could not or would not change the fortunes of those whose future he beheld in his Book of Fortune. However, when Ba explained to her that change was indeed possible, Minli was convinced.

The first theme of the book is fortune and fate because fortune is what Minli aims to achieve and all of her quest is premised on the possibility...