Starting in 1972 when she is nine, Ling, the daughter of two doctors, struggles to make sense of the communists' Cultural Revolution, which empties stores of food, homes of appliances deemed "bourgeois," and people of laughter.

"Czechoslovakia, 1969. Seventeen-year-old Pavol has watched his country's freedoms disappear in the wake of the Soviet Union's invasion. He's seen his own dreams disappear too. In a desperate, fatal act of protest against the oppressive new government, he sets himself on fire in public, hoping to motivate others to fight for change. Instead, Pavol's death launches a government investigation into three of his closest friends. Štěpán finds his Olympic...

When Tai Shan and his father, Baba, are separated during China's Cultural Revolution, they are able to stay close by greeting one another every day with flying kites until Baba, like the kites, is free. Includes historical note.

Rosalind Lang and Nationalist spy Orion Hong are on a mission to stop the grisly murders causing unrest in Shanghai, which is already roiling with Nationalists and Communists engaged in civil war and a looming Japanese invasion. When the Nationalists connect the murders to Japanese-owned Seagreen Press, publisher of imperialist propaganda, Rosalind and Orion pose as newlyweds with domestic-assistant jobs to infiltrate the press. Working together doesn't...