[1] The Bathing Women focuses on the main character Tiao, a Beijing publisher who on chance begins an affair with the older married actor Feng Jing, her sister Fan and her long term friend Fei, as they grow up in the chaos of the Cultural Revolution.

Despite returning to her children, Wu routinely ignores them in favor of pursuing her relationship with Dr. Tang, enraging Tiao who sees her mother as betraying her father.

During this time Wu becomes pregnant with her third daughter Quan, the pregnancy is immediately regarded with suspicion by all members of the family, who believe that Dr. Tang had fathered the child not Yiuan.

[2][3][4][5] Julia Lovell of The Guardian wrote, "...compared with recent offerings by writers such as Mo Yan or Yu Hua, Tie Ning's command of psychological realism is practically Jamesian.

She is an acute, sympathetic observer of Chinese society, skilled at capturing the discomforts, hypocrisies and uncouthness of everyday life, and the way that guilt and grievance corrode relationships."

"[7] In contrast, Dawn contributor Zara Khadeeja Majoka gave a far more negative review of the book stating, "On the whole, the reader is neither able to muster any great empathy for the characters nor relate to them in any significant way.