Book excerpt: "Mr. Lowe lives the simple and happy life of a contented shopkeeper. A Chinese immigrant to Jamaica in the 1890s, Lowe revels in the verdant surroundings of his adoptive land. But his mysterious past begins to confront Lowe in everything he does, and so his story emerges - the tale of his exile from China, his shipboard adventures, an unwanted pregnancy, and the arrangement of hidden identity that was made to avoid scandal. Lowe marries the beautiful widow Miss Sylvie as part of the arrangement, and their relationship is complex, vivid, and full of secrets. When his shop burns to the ground Lowe is forced to reckon with his past through the destruction of his disguises and the creation of a new dream: the building of a pagoda where culture and the past can be fully embraced." -- back cover.