[1] The setting of The Interior is summer 1997—China "post- Deng Xiaoping", a period characterized by "an unholy alliance between post-Deng Communism ('market socialism') and American capitalism",[2] the China of Jiang Zemin.

In the novel the narrator speaks about the times in more personal terms: "As the saying went, the blade of grass points where the wind blows.

See describes in great detail the dangers women face because they work in an American toy factory, located in a remote part of the interior of China, that lacks adequate safety protections[4] and is a virtual fire trap.

'"[6] At the end of The Interior Hulan and David solve several murders related to the toy factory.

It concludes with the solution to the mystery of Miaoshan's death (which had nothing to do with the toy factory) and with her mother Suchee working in the fields, unable to forget her.