Both main characters, Li-yan and Haley, struggle with finding a sense of belonging. The search for identity unites them, mother and daughter, despite their separation and lack of knowledge about each other’s fate. Li-yan, the novel’s protagonist, grows up in a close-knit, traditional community, but she begins to feel her lack of belonging when she is still a little girl. While everyone else around her seems to accept the Akha traditions and way of life, Li-yan asks many questions and looks at the Akha culture critically. Her sense of not belonging in the village where she was born and raised becomes especially acute after she witnesses the birth of twins. Superstitious, the villagers kill the twins and exile the parents. This has such a strong and lasting effect on Li-yan that she begins to explore the possibility of a life outside her village.

When she starts studying at trade school, her background makes her different from everyone else, and Li-yan has to try very hard not to stand out. At first, she feels like a complete outsider, but with time she makes friends and adjusts to life beyond her village. Yet when she moves to a big city, she struggles to find her place there: It is too big, too crowded, and too noisy for her.