Xing Xing lives with her mother and stepsister, and her relationship with both is complicated. She feels both love and pity for her stepsister, who is in great physical pain: Stepmother recently bound her feet, hoping her daughter will eventually make a match good enough to support them as a result. Xing Xing has yet to give up hoping her stepmother might love her, even as she resents her role as family caretaker and servant (although Stepmother also works hard). Xing Xing’s only source of solace is the great white fish that swims in the pond near the cave where they live. When her stepsister’s feet become infected and the girl grows ill, Stepmother sends Xing Xing in search of the itinerant doctor and his medicine. The fish follows Xing Xing on a journey that is harrowing at times. It is only after Xing Xing returns with a balm for her stepsister that she realizes the fish is her mother, who has returned from the dead to watch over her. But her joy in the revelation is short lived. In the desperation that came with her daughter’s illness, Stepmother grew unbalanced. (Or perhaps the crisis made it more difficult for her to hide her true nature: the complexities of the characters leave room for multiple interpretations of many elements in the story.) Stepmother commits an act of utmost treachery and cruelty that devastates Xing Xing. It also frees her of any sense of duty, and when she sees an opportunity to act on her own behalf, she does so without hesitation. Variants of Chinese Cinderella stories formed the basis for
Donna Jo Napoli’s beautifully told, intricate tale that is set during the Ming Dynasty in fourteenth century China. (Ages 12–16)

YOUNG XING XING IS BOUND.

Bound to her father's second wife and daughter after Xing Xing's father has passed away. Bound to a life of servitude as a young girl in ancient China, where the life of a woman is valued less than that of livestock. Bound to be alone and unmarried, with no parents to arrange for a suitable husband. Dubbed "Lazy One" by her stepmother, Xing Xing spends her days taking care of her half sister, Wei Ping, who cannot walk because of her foot bindings, the painful but compulsory tradition for girls who are fit to be married. Even so, Xing Xing is content, for now, to practice her gift for poetry and calligraphy, to tend to the mysterious but beautiful carp in her garden, and to dream of a life unbound by the laws of family and society.

But all of this is about to change as the time for the village's annual festival draws near, and Stepmother, who has spent nearly all of the family's money, grows desperate to find a husband for Wei Ping. Xing Xing soon realizes that this greed and desperation may threaten not only her memories of the past, but also her dreams for the future.

In this searing story, Donna Jo Napoli, acclaimed author of Beast and Breath,delves into the roots of the Cinderella myth and unearths a tale as powerful as it is familiar.