On the rubbish dump, a baby cried.

The cry was weak, and fading. The wild dogs had picked up the cries, and the scent, and were circling, closing in.

Bessie walked towards the sound and found a day-old baby girl. She had been abandoned because of her sex. It happened often here, in south west China.

If Bessie did nothing, the baby would be torn to pieces. So she picked her up, carried her to safety, and later adopted her. Yet, in saving her life, did Bessie condemn the baby she named Pearl to a life of fear and persecution?

This is Pearl's story, and that of Bessie, plus Alf – Bessie's then fiancé, later husband – and John, a second Han Chinese child the couple adopted.

Bessie and Alf were Methodists missionaries in Yunnan province, China, in the first half of the twentieth century. They lived through momentous times, including the Japanese occupation, the Second World War, the civil war, the Communist takeover and the Cultural Revolution.

This book follows their personal stories against the backdrop of a turbulent century.