Her search is set against an exciting backdrop of fires and aftershocks caused by the earthquake. Jessie knows this may be her last opportunity to find Mei and her baby. Then the great earthquake of 1906 strikes and Chinatown is destroyed, sending the Chinese immigrants to refugee camps on the military bases. Jessie doesn't forget Mei or the child she is carrying, but she knows she'll never find her in Chinatown if Mei chooses not to be found. When she is brought home by a policeman, her father threatens to send her to boarding school if she ever goes back to Chinatown. She accidentally stumbles into an opium den where she is attacked and robbed. When Mei mysteriously disappears, Jessie is certain she is pregnant and goes looking for her in Chinatown. Mei is only a couple of years older than she is. Jessie discovers her father is having an affair with their young housemaid, and is crushed. He is a prominent San Francisco physician and Jessie stubbornly intends to follow in his footsteps although he disdains her ambition. Though Jessie often finds herself at cross-proposes with her father, she's always respected him. Her gentle mother is kind to her servants and throws herself into charities that benefit the needy, but never works in direct contact with them. Fourteen-year-old Jessie lives in an upper class home with Chinese servants, whom she considers her friends.
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