Reeling from newly uncovered family secrets, and anger at her mother and aunt for keeping them from her, Joy runs away to Shanghai in early 1957 to find her birth father—the artist Z.G. Li, with whom both May and Pearl were once in love. Dazzled by him, and blinded by idealism and defiance, Joy throws herself into the New Society of Red China, heedless of the dangers in the communist regime.
Boulder psychologist Alan Gregory hasn't seen former patient Gibbs Storey since she and her husband were in marriage counseling with him almost a decade ago. So when she walks into his office with a startling declaration--that she believes her husband murdered at least one woman, and may be planning to kill more--Gregory finds himself on the horns of a dilemma that's not just professional but personal as well: He can't reveal what his patient has told him, not even to his wife, who's a prosecutor, or his friend Sam, who's a cop. What's more, his feelings for Gibbs may be clouding his judgment about the truth of what she professes.
