Pearl Buck adds one more beautiful and notable woman to the gallery of women in her novels. This time it is Peony, sold as a child into a rich house in China, brought up as a bondmaid, one who is more than a servant, less than a daughter. She grows into a provocative and lovely girl and she falls in love with the only son of the house. But tradition forbids her to be his wife. How she deals with her love, how she controls her destiny-- and his too -- make the story.
