A sweeping story that moves gracefully from the intimately personal to the larger stage of world history, this is the stirring, erotically charged expose of the woman almost universally known as the "white-boned demon", whom many hold directly responsible for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution.
The book penetrates the myth surrounding this woman and creates a finely nuanced, always ambiguous portrait of a woman driven by ambition, betrayal, and a never-to-be-fulfilled need to be loved.