The novel opens with 10-year-old Li-yan listening as her three older brothers talk about the dreams they had the night prior. Her First Brother tells a different version of the dream Li-yan has heard many times before. His dream does not have any bad omens, and their mother, A-ma, who interprets the dreams, is pleased. Li-yan’s family belongs to the Akha hill tribe, and they believe that “every story, every dream, every waking minute of [their] lives is filled with one fateful coincidence after another” (3).

After Li-yan’s Second and Third Brothers finish telling their dreams, her father, A-ba, urges the girl to share hers as well. She is surprised because this is the first time her parents acknowledge her during this morning ritual. In Li-yan’s dream, she saw a dog on the roof, which is a bad omen because “dreaming of a dog on the roof means [...] that a spirit has sneaked past the protection of the village’s spirit gate and is now roaming among [them]” (5). Fearing to disappoint and alarm her parents, Li-yan lies and tells her family that in her dream, the dog scared an evil spirit away and “A-poe-mi-yeh rewarded him by giving everyone in [their] family a chicken to eat” (5).