Adeline Yen Mah is a prolific author of Chinese literature. This is her first novel.
Shen Ying's mother died when she was little, leaving her alone with her father, who was a doctor. Ying grew up in an isolated rural village in Yunnan province, where her father worked as a doctor for the local factory owner's family. She had only one friend, Lin Ming, who was also orphaned like her
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The two friends were inseparable until the day that Ying escaped from her father's house and Lin caught up to her after she hid in the woods for three days.
When Ying returns home, she finds that her father has married again. The new wife is cruel and abusive to him. She also doesn't like his choice of friends: he always talks about "his" daughter, Shen Ying.
The new wife orders him to take his friend Lin Ming away with him to work at the factory. He follows this order without question, even though it means parting with his beloved daughter.
Years later, after Ying has established herself as a doctor in the city, she writes to tell Lin Ming what happened. She invites him to come visit her one last time before he leaves for the city to work as a doctor for another family.
When he arrives, they are both surprised by how much they have changed since the days when they were children. Ying now has two successful children and an elegant home while Lin still lives in the same small hut where they were raised together, working as a doctor for an old lady living near his village.
Ying wants to help make sure that nothing bad happens to Lin Ming since he's no longer able to work as a doctor himself anymore because of old age. She enlists him because she knows that he could not resist coming back if his only friend asked him to come back for one last time before leaving forever.
When Lin Ming comes back home for good this time, however, he refuses to leave his village behind because he has already suffered so much there and has no desire to go through it again.
He ends up staying there alone all these years while Ying goes on with her life despite being angry at him for keeping himself trapped in their past together all these years without contacting anyone or doing anything about it except sending postcards every few months so that she can keep track of his location by following them on their journey across China from place to place where they have ever been together throughout their childhoods because she knows that if