Summary

Part 1 begins in September 1944, with Mei and Chunyu sleeping in an “old, musty, dismal…rathole” (191).

Part 2 takes place the day before. Mei, Chunyu, and their mother hear the air raid siren go off and they begin to go to the shelter, but their mother runs back to fetch a jewelry box and “never [comes] back to join them” (192). Later that day, they find that their street has been bombed, and they find their mother’s body there. Chunyu blames her father – her mother was going back to get some money because his monthly allowance was late. Mei and Chunyu try to go to his house to tell him what has happened, but on the way they are attacked by uniformed men who rape them repeatedly.

Part 3 returns to where Mei and Chunyu are being held in part 1. A woman comes in...