A colorful and compelling memoir of Jewish life in China during the first half of the 20th century. Beil spent the first part of her life in the Chinese cities of Tsingtao (Qingdao), Mukden (Shenyang), Harbin, and Tientsin (Tianjin) and lived through the Japanese occupation, liberation by Americans at the end of World War II, civil war between Nationalist and Communist forces, and the flight of foreign nationals from an increasingly closed society.