Summary

Section i sets the novel in post-American Civil War. It establishes the mood, references the abduction of Abraham Lincoln’s body, meteor showers, and ghostly apparitions. It also introduces the Steilacoom Asylum and sets the stage for a woman to enter a Chinese railway workers’ camp.

Chapter one, titled “The Year of the Rooster”, opens with, as the other chapters do, a selection of Emily Dickenson’s work. It then opens in winter with Chin Ah Kin building a fire in a makeshift camp. He looks up and sees a woman who is speaking incoherently. He wonders if it’s another language and then thinks she may be a ghost woman who has come to lure him away. He then guesses she may be a prostitute, but he’s not seen a white prostitute before. Sarah, though...