Ruthanne Lum McCunn Volgorde van de boeken (chronologisch)

Lalu Nathoy's father called his thirteen-year-old daughter his treasure, his "thousand pieces of gold," yet when famine strikes northern China in 1871, he is forced to sell her. Polly, as Lalu is later called, is sold to a brothel, sold again to a slave merchant bound for America, auctioned to a saloonkeeper, and offered as a prize in a poker game. This biographical novel is the extraordinary story of one woman's fight for independence and dignity in the American West.

In het 19e-eeuwse China komen enkele plattelandsmeisjes in opstand tegen de traditie van het uitgehuwelijkt worden.