The story of two sisters, one brought up in the U.S., the other in China. The American sister is contemptuous of the other's belief in ghosts until events cause her to understand what they can do. A tale of two cultures by the author of The Kitchen God's Wife.
Set in San Francisco and in a remote village of southern China, this is a story of two half-sisters, Kwan and Olivia, who are separated in age by many years and also by life experience. Kwan admits to the younger Olivia that she is influenced by ghosts. Only years later when they travel to China, does the skeptical Olivia begin to believe Kwan's stories.