orn in a small village in Guangdong province at the time of the last Chinese Emperor, Percival Chen loses two successive sets of parents, and flees from the 1945 Japanese invasion of Hong Kong. He makes his fortune as headmaster of an English school in Saigon, and loses it as a gambler during the Vietnam War. In 1998, Percival is dying from cancer in Brisbane, Australia, occasionally visited by his children and grandchildren who are scattered through the world. The members of the Chen family are both refugees and opportunists, driven by fears of the past and their search for a home.

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