Written by one of the most lauded Chinese writers of the twentieth century, this bijou story focuses around the relationship between Mr and Mrs Mi and compares their bond of love with the sense of care they feel for the elderly Mrs Yang. A subtle examination of the fragile ties that bind us to those whom we love and those for whom we find ourselves caring along the way.

Eileen Chang was born in 1920 in Shanghai. She studied literature at the University of Hong Kong but returned to Shanghai in 1941 during the Japanese occupation where she published two works, Romances (1944) and Written on Water (1945). These established her reputation as a literary star. She moved to Hong Kong in 1952 and to America in 1955 where she continued to write. Increasingly reclusive, she died in Los Angeles in 1995.