Twelve-year-old Mei Mei is barred from attending public school with white children in San Francisco; instead, she attends a Chinese school. Her parents are indebted to brokers who paid for their passage to America, and now they’re threatening to take Mei Mei. For her safety, Ma Ma and Ba Ba reluctantly send her hundreds of miles north to Eureka, where schools are integrated. But when Mei Mei arrives, she’s made to labor in the kitchen of the rich (and mean) Bobbitt family. The kindness of their cook, Mrs. Yu, provides her with comfort, and Sara, the Bobbitts’ daughter, befriends Mei Mei and secretly teaches her to speak and read English. Learning fills Mei Mei with joy, but her literacy is a fraught subject during this racially divided time. When a tragic death leads to the expulsion of Chinese people from Eureka, Mei Mei returns home to an emotional family reunion. This verse novel told from Mei Mei’s first-person point of view is divided into 10 date-stamped sections from September 1884 to March 1885. The lyrical free verse transports readers into the vividly realized historical setting. Feet form a running metaphor highlighting freedom; award-winning poet Chang contrasts Ma Ma’s debilitating, bound lotus feet with Mei Mei’s energetic stride.