The novel begins with a quote from the 14th-century Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta:[3] Nowhere in the world are there to be found people richer than the Chinese.

Rachel is shocked when she learns who her father, Zhou Fang Min, is and leaves to stay with her friend Goh Peik Lin and her family.

[4] In a last-ditch effort to help save their marriage and make Astrid happy, Charlie secretly buys shares in Michael's startup company at a highly inflated price.

He wants to impress all his friends and relatives at the wedding, but his plans fall short because of his family, particularly his younger brother Alistair who is dating Kitty Pong, a starlet of questionable background and intentions.

Alistair and Kitty are briefly engaged but she leaves him for Bernard Tai, a billionaire's son, after Oliver T'Sien misleads her to believe that the Chengs are not as rich as she thought.

While staying at Colin's house, Nick regrets bringing Rachel to Singapore without giving her an insight into how to deal with his wealthy family.

In desperation, Kerry finally reveals the truth about her real father: it isn't Fang Min but a man nicknamed Kao Wei.

Rachel decides to listen to her mother and learn about the abuse she went through with Fang Min, including how Kao Wei saved her life by helping her escape to America, where she stayed with her relatives.

Shang Su Yi and Sir James Young had five children: Felicity, Catherine, Philip, Victoria, and Alexandra.

T'sien Tsay Tay and Rosemary Young had five children as well: Mabel, Richard "Dickie", Mark, Anna May, and Clarence.

[6] In the book, a huge amount of respect and admiration is shown to the Youngs, Shangs, and T'siens primarily due to their wealth and prestige as one of the oldest wealthy families in Singapore and Asia.

Before his father died of cancer in 2010, Kwan suspended his work for eighteen months to care for him, during which they would reminisce about life in Singapore.

[2][9] Kwan first developed what became the second chapter of the book from a poem entitled "Singapore Bible Study," which he had written for a creative writing course in college.

[10] Kwan shared an incomplete draft of the novel with an editor friend, who later complained he had ruined her Thanksgiving dinner, as she could not put the book down, delaying meal preparations.

He also recognized there was a gap in the coverage of contemporary Asia in the western book market, which was publishing either historical fiction or Asian-American identity works.

[12] Kwan insists that everything he writes is based on real or at least plausible situations in Singapore, and that he even had to tone some things down because they were so over-the-top, they would be too unbelievable for readers.

[8] The lavish decorations and clothing described in the novel were also inspired by true stories, but Kwan's editor asked him to cut some of those details, as they were hardly believable.

While some of the details, such as a living room with a sunken pond full of baby sharks, seem almost too fantastical to be real, Kwan assures they are.

“There were all these beautiful scenes from my childhood that really are coated in amber.”[16] Kwan writes, ‘I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been asked whether women like Astrid truly exist, but I would always answer that, as a child in the late 1970s, I personally knew women who took the Concorde from Singapore to Paris via London twice a year for their couture fittings and that Queen Sirikit of Thailand had been partial to Balmain since 1960.

She would never say if they were couture, but I do recall her telling me, “All my clothes and shoes came from Paris.” The novel received positive reviews internationally from sources including The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Independent.

[22][23] On the September/October 2013 issue of Bookmarks, reported on reviews from several publications with ratings for the novel out of five: Boston Globe, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, and Wall Street Journal gave it a four and New York Times gave it a three with the critical summary saying, "The novel may rely on the appeal of money and scandal to dress up otherwise uninspired writing, but so far as we can see, there's nothing too wrong with that".