Kingston begins her memoir by breaking a taboo: “‘You must not tell anyone,’ my mother said, ‘what I am about to tell you’” (3). The ensuing story recounts the tragic death of Kingston’s aunt, which is never publicly spoken of in her immigrant Chinese family. After having a baby out of wedlock while her husband was away in America, the nameless aunt drowned both the baby and herself in the family well.

Kingston’s mother tells how their neighboring villagers performed a ritualized raid on their home:

“Like a great saw, teeth strung with lights, files of people walked zigzag across our land, tearing the rice. […] As the villagers closed in, we could see that some of them, probably men and women we knew well, wore white masks. The people with long hair hung it over their faces. Women with short hair made it stand up on end” (4).

Thus disguised, the villagers destroyed the house, slaughtered the livestock, and drove the pregnant woman out into the night.

Kingston uses this story as a lens through which to examine rural Chinese culture and her own immigrant relationship with her origins. The rest of the aunt’s story goes unspoken; Kingston does not even know her aunt’s name.