 The second part of the novel takes place in the lead-up to and during World War II, focusing on the lives of Chinese women under the Japanese occupation of China and the brutality inflicted on them by the occupying forces.The novel opens with the narrative voice of Pearl Louie Brandt, the American-born daughter of a Chinese mother and a Chinese-American father, living in San Jose, California.Pearl's mother, Winnie Louie, has called her to request that she and her family come to San Francisco, to attend the engagement party of Bao-Bao, her cousin.