Prologue -- My journey towards the stories of Chinese women -- Girl who kept a fly as a pet -- University student -- Scavenger woman -- Mothers who endured an earthquake -- What Chinese women believe -- Woman who loved women -- Woman whose marriage was arranged by the revolution -- My mother -- Woman who waited forty-five years -- Guomindang general's daughter -- Childhood I cannot leave behind me -- Woman whose father does not know her -- Fashionable woman -- Women of Shouting Hill -- Epilogue -- Acknowledgements.

An unprecedented, intimate account of the lives of modern Chinese women, told by the women themselves--true stories of the political and personal upheavals they have endured in their chaotic and repressive society.