The setting is in San Francisco, a chinatown

Jing-mei and her mother are the main characters. Her mother is a chinese immagant and she wants her to be a prodigy

Jing-mei mother wants her to be a child prodigy. She wants her to be a chinese Sherly Temple. Jing-mei mother gets her to do piano lessons. After some piano lessons she has a resital. Jing-mei does really bad at her restial. Her mother is very sad, and they have a fight about her still doing piano lessons. Later in Jing-mei life her mother asks her if she wants the piano, this is a symbol of forgiveness

Jing-mei was happy at first that she was getting made into a prodigy, then it kept going on and she got sick of it.