Peony (or The Bondmaid) is set in the 1850s in the city of Kaifeng, in the province of Henan, which was historically a center for Chinese Jews. The novel follows Peony, a Chinese bondmaid of the prominent Jewish family of Ezra ben Israel's, and shows through her eyes how the Jewish community was regarded in Kaifeng at a time when most of the Jews had come to think of themselves as Chinese.Young Peony is sold in to a rich Chinese household as a bondmaid -an akward role in which she is more than a servant, but less than a daughter. As she grows into a lovely, provacative young woman, Peony falls in love with the family's only son. However, tradition forbids them to wed. How she resolves her love for him and her devotion to her adoptive family unfolds in the profound tale, based on true events in China over a century ago.