A young woman hears the tale of a sacred text, written in an ancient language & inscribed on silk cloth many centuries ago. Puyi, the last emperor & owner of the relic, allegedly tore the silk in pieces with his teeth & threw it from a plane when he was taken by the Japanese to Manchuria. A search for this lost text & its poignant, devastatingly simple message begins... This is a beguiling tale of fables, stories within stories, a young man`s desperate search for his father`s legacy & a young woman`s search for the man she loved. Covering almost a century of China`s history, this haunting novel combines mystery, harsh reality & tenderness with astonishing insight.