Summary

In the Prologue, the narrator, Julie, acknowledges that if the reader is reading her memoir, then she has died. She is okay with the reality of her own death. Next, in Chapter 1, Julie describes her childhood. She was born to a poor Chinese family in Communist Vietnam. Since she was born blind, her paternal grandmother wanted her to be killed.

In Chapter 2, Julie writes a letter to her two young daughters, Mia and Belle. She tells them that she learned and matured through suffering. She hopes her daughters will grow stronger through the suffering they would feel from not having a mother. Life is not fair, and it is strange that we human beings often think it should be fair. She reminds her daughters she would always be with them. She believes that the purpose of life is to experience as much...