In this book, the author recounts her parents' tumultuous long-distance relationship and explores its effects on her and her sister. Spanning a century of the family's history (1860-1960), Li tells of her American Chinese father, Dr Li Kuo Ching, a successful entrepreneur and brilliant engineer who discovered tungsten, a strategic metal at the time. Her mother, Luo Bu Ge, was a simple but smart and inquisitive woman; but being born at the end of the Qing Dynasty, she had to conform to the traditions of the times. As a daughter who always felt abandoned by her father and who has been unable to confront her innermost conflicts, Li finally finds the courage to confront her fears.