Peony is set in the 1850s in the city of Kaifeng, in the province of Henan, which was historically a center for Chinese Jews.

The novel follows Peony, a Chinese bondmaid of the prominent Jewish family of Ezra ben Israel's, and shows through her eyes how the Jewish community was regarded in Kaifeng at a time when most of the Jews had come to think of themselves as Chinese.

The novel contains a hidden love and shows the importance of duty, along with the challenges of life.

This novel follows the guidelines of Buck's work: it is set in China, and it involves religion and an interracial couple (David and Kueilan).

[citation needed] A prefatory note preceding the title page, which tells the reader of the assimilation about the Jews of Kaifeng, reads: "Today even the memory of their origin is gone.