Women will watch the opera from behind a screen to hide them from view．Yet through a crack．Peony catches sight of an elegant，handsome man with hair as black as a cave and is immediately bewitched by him．

Peony is the cherished only child of the first wife of a wealthy Chinese nobleman．Yet she is betrothed to a man she has never met and，as her sixteenth birthday approaches，she has neither seen nor spoken to any man other than her father and has never ventured outside the cloistered women’S quarters of the Chen Family Villa．She is trapped like a good—luck cricket in a bamboo—and—lacquer cage and the romantic lyrics from the Chinese epic opera The Peony Pavilion mirror her own longings．Though raised to be obedient，Peony has dreams of her own． Her father engages a small theatrical troupe to perform scenes from

The Peony Pavilion in their garden amidst the scent of giflger,green tea and iasmine．Peony’S mother is against the production：Unmarried girls should not be seen in public．But Peony’S father prevails，assuring his wife that proprieties will be maintained．Women will watch the opera from behind a screen to hide them from view．Yet through a crack．Peony catches sight of an elegant，handsome man with hair as black as a cave and is immediately bewitched by him．

So begins Peony’S unforgettable journey of love，desire，sorrow and redemption．Lisa See’S compelling new novel takes readers back to seventeenth—century China and into the heart and soul of an unforgettable heroine．