In 1930s Malaya, a 16-year-old girl, dreaming of marriage to her
sweetheart, is sold as a concubine to a rich old man desperate for an
heir. Trapped, and bullied by his spiteful wife, Yu Lan plans to escape
with her baby son, despite knowing that they will pursue her to the ends
of the earth. Four generations later, her great-grandson, Nick, will
return to Malaysia, looking for the truth behind the facade of a house
cursed by the unhappy past. Nothing can prepare him for what he will
find. This exquisitely rich novel brings to life a vanished world--a
world of abandoned ghost houses, inquisitive monkeys, smoky temples, and
a panoply of gods and demons. A world where a poor girl can be sold to
fulfill a rich man's dream. But though he can buy her body, he can never
capture her soul, nor quench her spirit.