Book excerpt: In 1920, Nora Waln arrived in China and was welcomed into the innermost daily life of the Lin family as a daughter in affection. It had been her dream to see China, but to be accepted into this family so intimately was amazing to Nora. This evocative, brilliant memoir, published 13 years after her return to the West, became a bestseller alongside those of Pearl Buck, Alice Tisdale Hobart, and Grace Seton Thompson.