I'd like to say that I'm suspicious of a woman who gives her cat credit as co-author. I wasted the first half of the book distracted by questions of royalties and agents and what shape a keyboard would have to be to be ergonomically correct for a cat. There are rave reviews all over this book's jacket, but I found it barely worth reading even on a very long flight with multiple layovers. I could hardly stand it. If you're familiar with Pearl S. Buck, you already know not to expect a happy ending.
Peony is a Chinese child sold into bondage to a Jewish family living in China.
She is bonded to the son of this family, a boy named David, and is to serve him and be a companion for him. As they get older, their feelings for each other change, though only Peony realizes it. His feelings are conflicted about this marriage, as are his father's, but his mother feels that the survival of the Jewish religion in China depends on this union. Peony, meanwhile, is desperately in love with David, but realizes she can never marry him. She instead takes action to ensure that he will marry a childlike Chinese girl named Kueilan instead of the Jewish girl Leah.