Li Ya is a young woman from a poor and rural part of China, too ugly, by the standards of her neighbours, and too independent-minded to have serious prospects of a good marriage. So, when a distant cousin invites her to travel far away from home and work in his family's restaurant for a huge sum of money, the offer seems too good to be true. The promised rewards are very high, and will give her a good and necessary dowry, and the money will help her look after her family, when her parents grow old, and she is, after all, only a girl, so the risks which cautious neighbours point out are easily ignored. And if everything turns out to be as beneficial as it seems, she would like to stay even longer and earn even more, but immigration laws are harsh, and the options open to her are unpalatable. Lennart lives a lonely, introverted life in the big city, his relief found in frequent visits to his brother's family an hour's journey out of town. There are unsettling developments at his job, and his future looks insecure. When he hears of Li Ya's plight, he is only marginally interested, and there are hindrances which prevent him from getting involved. Will Li Ya be able to find a solution she can accept? Her adventures before she gets to this country on the far side of the world, what she finds when she arrives, and how she tries to make the best of her situation so far from home, are what this book is about.