A timeless novel of one woman who bridged two worlds in a tumultuous era of East meets West.The year is 1881, the era of China's collision with imperialist Europe. Seven-year-old Jinhua is left alone and unprotected, her life transformed after her mandarin father's summary execution for the crime of speaking the truth. As an orphan, she is sold to a brothel keeper and grows up enduring the worst of human nature. When an elegant but troubled scholar takes Jinhua as his concub