Summary

In Chapter 1, the narrator, Mei, introduces her story. She is a young Chinese girl living in a Sierra Nevada logging camp in 1885. One of her many jobs is ringing the dinner bell (1). She also helps her father "feed a hundred lumberjacks" and "forty Chinese workers" each night (2). The Chinese workers "do not receive board" at the camp (2). In the mornings, Mei's father, Hao, prays in a cabin with a shrine. When Mei was little, he used to tell her "stories of heroes and gods" (4). Now, Hao no longer tells stories, and Mei no longer prays. She mainly focuses on her chores.

In the logging kitchen, Mei and her coworkers work hard. Mei is the best at making pies. The men get upset if the pies do not come fast enough.

Mister Hels Andersen "runs the logging camp" (10). He loves Mei's pies and Hao's cooking...