Part 1, An-Mei Hsu, "Scar" Summary

In China, An-Mei is raised by her grandmother, "Popo", because her natural mother is a "ghost" - a person who has disgraced the family and has no name other than her function as the Fourth Wife of a rich man. An-Mei lives with her aunt and uncle in their big, cold house in Ningpo, along with her little brother and grandmother. Grandmother Popo scares An-Mei all her life with stories about what happens to bad little girls and even tells An-Mei that to say her mother's name is to spit on her father's grave. An-Mei's mother is a widow, and by tradition, widows cannot remarry without disgracing their families. An-Mei knows her father only from a large painting. In 1923, when An-Mei is nine years old, her grandmother Popo gets very sick. Her body swells up...