Two teenage girls make a pledge to each other to be as “man and wife” in a small Chinese fishing town. The notions of women’s rights or sexual freedom are absent in their oppressive minority culture, and when one becomes happily married to a stranger, the other is cruelly betrothed to the abusive son of a wealthy family. Seeking to free herself from a lifetime of abuse, Hui-hua desperately looks for a way out. —-by J L (New York City)