In this lyrical reimagining of a Chinese classic & set against the breathtaking backdrop of eighteenth-century Beijing the lives of three unforgettable women collide in the inner chambers of the Jia mansion. When orphaned Daiyu leaves her home in the provinces to take shelter with her cousins in the capital she is drawn into a world of opulent splendor presided over by the ruthless scheming Xifeng & the prim repressed Baochai. As she learns the secrets behind their glittering facades she finds herself entangled in a web of intrigue & hidden passions reaching from the petty gossip of the servants quarters all the way to the Imperial Palace. When a political coup overthrows the Emperor & plunges the once-mighty family into grinding poverty each woman must choose between love & duty friendship & survival. In this dazzling debut Pauline Chen draws the reader deep into the secret exquisite world of the womens quarters of an aristocratic household where the burnish of wealth & refinement mask a harsher truth: marriageable girls are traded like chattel for the familys advancement & to choose to love is to risk everything.