The coming-of-age of a pampered half-Chinese boy living in Beijing during the Japanese Occupation. Young David, son of his father"s Swiss second wife, has been brought up first by servants and then by an English stepmother. The Japanese invasion destroys the Eurasian world of privilege in which he lives. His father serves in the pro-Japanese government while secretly, perilously, working for the Resistance. David, sent away to school, is taunted as a half-caste by the now openly xenophobic Chinese. After Japan"s surrender, his father is imprisoned and reviled, in scenes foreshadowing those of Mao"s Cultural Revolution, until he can clear himself. As the clash between Communists and Nationalists threatens to engulf China, twelve-year-old David is spirited out of the country alone, not knowing if he will ever see his family again. Like J. G. Ballard"s Empire of the Sun, this is an account of war"s perils and life"s betrayals, seen through the eyes of a bewildered youth.