In The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan, Pearl loves her mother, but doesn't understand her. Her mother, Winnie, is from China and appears to cling to the old ways and superstitions of her past. Whenever Pearl is with her mother, she feels as if she has to "spend the whole time avoiding land mines." That is part of the reason for Pearl's reluctance to reveal to her mother that she has been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. What she doesn't suspect is that her mother has her own secrets as well.

When Pearl's Aunt Helen becomes convinced that she has a brain tumor, she threatens to expose the secrets of both mother and daughter if they don't open up to each other soon.

Although Winnie is furious, she knows that she is the only one who can tell her daughter the truth about her past, but she is...