ZHAO SHUYUAN feels more vulnerable to Fate than ever before as she awaits the results of the grueling entrance exam for incoming high school students. But at the same time, she is determined not to let the make-or-break exam spoil the start of summer, now that her parents have granted her the newfound freedom to explore Beijing with her friends. As she and her best friend, WU YU, head northwest on their bikes on the last day of junior high school, she tries to put all her self-doubt from the past few years behind her. The return to self-study and more chores at home will have to wait another day. \tBecause none of her teachers had encouraged her since primary school, Shuyuan has decided to rely more on the cheerfulness of Wu Yu and her other friend, WEI WEN HO, a boy who they both found different from the other boys in their Grade 3 class. Even so, she strives to gain the praise of her parents, not in words but in deeds, as is the Chinese custom. Although she was one of the top students in her primary school, she wasn’t admitted into a key middle school. If she can’t reverse this misfortune and be admitted to a key high school, she is doomed to be a loser in life—or so she continues to believe. \tOf course, it doesn’t help that her mother, MA XIAO MEI, is always on her back, but at least she feels that she has an ally in her father, ZHAO ZHONG LAI, in matters of schooling. Shuyuan’s maternal grandmother, HU PAN DI, always seems to take her mother’s side, and Shuyuan is convinced that her mother learned how to constantly scold from her own mother. Although she tries to brace herself for these verbal assaults, she cannot withstand them emotionally, and they have taken their toll as the novel begins. \tAlthough her mother’s side is Hui, an ethnic minority, and her father’s side is Han, the ethnic majority, Shuyuan is not torn between Muslim and Chinese customs in her own daily life. It helps that her father likes and admires MA SONG, her maternal grandfather and that both sides of the family approved of the marriage of her parents during the tumultuous Cultural Revolution, when such inter-ethnic unions were very uncommon. Ma Song, same as her father, tries to get Shuyuan to be stronger in the face of adversity by their own example, and by their loving concern for her. \tAlthough she doesn’t recognize it until well into the novel, the conflict which most besets Shuyuan is an inner one of her own making. She lacks empathy for others despite being poor herself, with fewer opportunities even than her two friends. They see this shortcoming in her but let Shuyuan save face by not confronting her about it. However, as the novel progresses, Shuyuan is compelled to come to terms were this inner conflict in a conscious effort to treat herself better and become a more positive person.