Violet Minturn, a half-Chinese/half-American courtesan who deals in seduction and illusion in Shanghai, struggles to find her place in the world, while her mother, Lucia, tries to make sense of the choices she has made and the men who have shaped her.

Kwan moves from China to live with her family in San Francisco and develops a relationship with her half sister Olivia. She confides in Olivia about the ghosts she hears telling her about love. Years later Kwan and her ghosts advise Olivia about her marriage.

"From New York Times bestselling author Amy Tan, a memoir on her life as a writer, her childhood, and the symbiotic relationship between fiction and emotional memory"--

Three bored sisters on a rainy afternoon make wish after wish- for the rain to stop, to play in the puddles- something, anything. Capturing their attention, their grandmother recounts a mesmerizing childhood memory of a magical night long ago when secret wishes came true. She relates what happened when Ying-ying was seven and celebrating the Moon Festival in China. On that long-ago night of the Moon Festival, she encountered...