Smart, vivacious Ji Lin is stuck as an apprentice dressmaker, moonlighting as a dancehall girl to help pay off her mother's Mahjong debts. But when one of her dance partners accidentally leaves behind a gruesome souvenir, Ji Lin may finally get the adventure she has been hoping for. Across town, 11-year-old houseboy Ren is on a mission of his own, racing to fulfill his former master's dying wish ... An utterly transporting novel set in 1930s colonial Malaysia.