 "Peony" is set in the 1850s in the city of Kaifeng, in the province of Henan, which was historically a center for Chinese Jews.The novel follows Peony, a Chinese bondmaid of the prominent Jewish family of Ezra ben Israel's, and shows through her eyes how the Jewish community was regarded in Kaifeng at a time when most of the Jews had come to think of themselves as Chinese.The novel contains a hidden love and shows the importance of duty, along with the challenges of life.