This is the story of a young person's deep longing for freedom and identity, without betraying herself or her family. She loves her family and wants their approval, but lately, Hang feels that her family's sense of justice is wrong. First of all, they mistreat the women in the family. Also, they don't do what it takes to help the family members reach their full potential, and when the family men fail, everyone just makes excuses for them. Suddenly, Hang realizes that she is so vested in their approval that she has been betraying herself all along.
So what the book really amounts to is Hang's epiphany at the end. When Hang finds the resolve to love herself even without her family's support or approval, and to do what it takes to give herself a happy, healthy life, that is a picture of true existential and emotional freedom.
The book also explains that people who don't belong to the same shame/honor culture won't understand precisely what the value of this emotional breakthrough might be, just like she can only wonder what it might feel like to be a happy, go-lucky person laughing with her friends. The truth is that Hang's culture puts serious pressure on her to "honor" her family by obeying them, by being available to serve them as a servant, and by abandoning her dreams for a meaningful, adventurous life. In other words, her family's honor system is corrupted.
