Young Peony, the cloistered daughter of a wealthy family who is betrothed to a suitor she has never met, watches scenes from an epic opera from behind a screen. She catches sight of an elegant, handsome man–and is immediately overcome with emotion. So begins Peony's unforgettable journey of love and destiny, desire and sorrow–as Lisa See's haunting novel, based on actual historical events, takes readers back to seventeenth-century China, after the Manchus seize power and the Ming dynasty is crushed. Immersed in the richness and magic of the Chinese vision of the afterlife, Peony in Love explores the many manifestations of love and addresses universal themes: the bonds of friendship, the power of words, and the age-old desire of women to be heard.