The story follows 10-year old Li-ling, whose father, Jiang Kai, a renowned pianist, has just committed suicide. Though she does not remember him much, sometimes she gets flashbacks of him playing the piano to her.
In China, things are tense, with protests happening at Tiananmen Square, and Li-ling and her mother watching the events from their home in Canada.
One day, they receive a letter from Jiang Kai’s piano teacher, whose daughter, Ai-Ming now resides in Canada but needs a place to stay. Ai-Ming and Li-ling are very different in nature, due to their varied backgrounds, one growing up in the east and the other the west. However, they are linked by the fact that they have both lost their fathers.
They find a bunch of Jiang Ki’s documents, telling the story of Big Mother Knife and Swirl, Chinese sisters who were present during the Chinese Civil War, and used to sing for a living. Their lives were greatly affected under Mao Zedong’s regime, including his communist policies of land reforms, as well as their involvement with the revolution.
In the present day, Li-ling manages to piece together the full background of her family’s life back in China.
