Hong Kong during the time of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Through his passionate love for a German Jewess, the narrator is compelled to confront his difficult homeland, China. A vibrant interplay of memories from his childhood and youth, the desire to forget, and the longing for a new life emerges. Questions about his Chinese identity, emigration, and coping with traumatic experiences due to political terror, as well as the possibilities and limitations of literary writing, along with his numerous love affairs, form the core of this sensual yet reflective novel. An impressive book of delicate melancholic silence, offering a profound exploration of unknown China.