Chapter Summary

Brave Orchid's sister, Moon Orchid, is moving to America from Hong Kong. They have not seen each other for thirty years. Brave Orchid, her children (who are recklessly moseying), and Moon Orchid's adult daughter anxiously await her arrival at the airport. When they finally meet again, they are both amazed at how much their appearances changed. Moon Orchid, who has never been to America before, is thrilled by everything around her. She soon becomes an annoyance to the entire household because of her constant talking and reprimanding about the children and their accomplishments. She is useless in Brave Orchids mind because she cannot perform the most menial of tasks and household chores. 

Brave Orchid has brought her sister to America to help Moon Orchid reclaim her marital status, as the wife of a doctor in Los Angeles. Moon Orchid married in China just before her husband left for the America, and received a good sum of money from him while she was still living in China. However, It had become clear that her husband had no plans for bringing Moon Orchid over to “Gold Mountain”, and had in fact married again and started a family. Though Moon Orchid is too embarrassed to confront her husband, Brave Orchid wants her to march straight into his house and treat his new wife like a servant, to take his new children as her own. 

Moon Orchid's daughter returns home to Los Angeles. Moon Orchid reluctantly agrees to make the trip to Los Angeles. On the drive down, Brave Orchid tells of a Chinese myth of an Emperor with four wives. The Empress of the West had imprisoned the Emperor in the Western Palace, and it was up to the Empress of the East to rescue her husband.

When they finally arrive at her husband's office building, Moon Orchid is too scared to enter, so Brave Orchid goes to the man's office instead. Brave Orchid sees her brother-in-law's new wife, a pretty nurse, and decides to have her son trick the doctor in to coming down to the car. The doctor, younger than both of the two women, addresses them as "Grandmothers." When Brave Orchid tells him the truth, he rudely tells Moon Orchid that he wants nothing to do with her, and that he could get in trouble if anyone ever found out about their marriage. They never see each other again.

Moon Orchid moves to Los Angeles to be with near her daughter, but begins to have delusions about Mexican "ghosts" plotting to kill her. Brave Orchid brings her sister back to Stockton, but her delusions only become worse. She walks around the house turning off lights and locking doors, believing someone is going to come and take all of them away. At the end of the chapter, Brave Orchid takes her sister to a mental asylum, where she eventually dies.

'It’s a mistake for you to be here. You can’t belong. You don’t have the hardness for this country. I have a new life... You became people in a book I had read about long ago”

            This quote comes from Moon Orchid’s husband, after he recognizes who she is. This quote illustrates the hardening of her husbands heart and the way he views Moon Orchid – an old dusty book shoved under a mattress many years ago, something to be forgotten.

"You have to ask him why he didn’t come. Why he turned into a barbarian. Make him feel bad about leaving his mother and father. Scare him. Walk right into his house with your suitcases and boxes. Throw her stuff out of the drawers and put yours in. Say, ‘I am the first wife, and she is our servant’."

This quote shows Brave Orchids use of scare tactics to in order to get her sister to redeem her long lost husband. Moon Orchid is weary of the whole plan from the get-go. From this, its easy to see why Moon Orchid is timid and embarrassed during the confrontation with her husband, seeing as her sister tagged along and eventually took control of the situation.

            Use of the term “Gold Mountain”

Refers to America. Both Moon Orchid and her late husband used this term in context. It represents the Chinese’ view of America from afar. It can be inferred that Moon Orchids use of the term Gold Mountain deteriorated through the course of the chapter, especially after he husbands comment about not having the  “hardness” enough for such a country.