Her story is told in a flashback; as a young woman, she meets her childhood fiance, Hanwei, again and recalls how she became the wife of James Chew, a Chinese restaurant owner in San Francisco.
Ailin's father dies of tuberculosis when she is twelve and she loses the only support she has in her family and cannot continue with school any longer.
With the help of her English teacher, Miss Gilbertson, Ailin finds work as an amah (governess) for the Warners, an American family.
On the boat to California, Ailin meets a young man named James Chew and they fall in love.
When the Warners decide to return to China, Ailin chooses to remain in California to marry James and help him run his restaurant.