The novel follows the destinies of three late-Ming courtesans, from the seamy world of girl trafficking and slavery to the cultured scene of poetry, music and theatre in Qinhuai, the decadent pleasure district of Nanjing.

Jingjing is reading her mother Rushi's memoir. A wretched adolescence barely behind her, Rushi, being a courtesan, loses her true love to the tyranny of conventions. Social scorn never leaves her alone. The memoir inspires Jingjing to uncover the fates of Rushi's two sworn sisters, also courtesans. Yuanyuan is first trapped in brutal slavery and then forced to let go of her lover and enter an unhappy union with a brutish general. Xiangjun incurs corrupt courtiers' wrath when she warns her lover of their trap laid for him. When the outbreak of war plunges the three women into deeper woes, they mull over a daring idea.... In piecing the three sisters' stories together, Jingjing slowly unravels the secret of who she is