Summary

Part I, Chapter 1 – An old man named U Ba approaches Julia Win at a tea house in Burma, saying he has been waiting to speak to her for four years. He knows all about her, including that she was born in New York City on August 28, 1968, to a Burmese father and an American mother. He asks Julia if she believes in love; Julia laughs in response. U Ba says he speaks of the kind of love that is so deep it brings meaning to life and knows no bounds. He explains that the tea house in which they now speak was where he first met Julia’s father. He was amazed by the story and by the fact that the only religion her father believed in was love. The old man then disappears into the crowd, leaving Julia unsettled...