Frances Wood is accepted on a foreign student group to go to Peking for a year in 1975. Whilst for us this time is a fascinating period of change in China, being the tail-end of the Cultural Revolution, this is not what the book is about. It is recollections based on her letters home which through her experiences highlight being an outsider in a society and understanding only what she experiences. It is an incredible and personable toe in the water memoir of a young woman living a year completely outside her comfort zone on every level.