In nineteenth-century China, a young girl struggles to protect her family from the threat of bandits, famine, and an ideological conflict between her father and brother.

When he accidentally kills a Manchu, a fifteen-year-old Chinese boy is sent to America to join his father, an uncle, and other Chinese working to build a tunnel for the transcontinental railroad through the Sierra Nevada mountains in 1867. Sequel to "Mountain light."

A Chinese immigrant and his son build a flying machine in "an unusual historical novel, unique in its perspective of the Chinese in America and its portrayal of early 20th century San Francisco, including the Earthquake, from an immigrant's viewpoint".--School Library Journal. 1976 Newbery Honor Book; ALA Notable Children's Books of 1971-1975; 1976 Boston Globe/Horn Book Award Honor Book; New York Times Outstanding Children's Books 1975; School Library...

A twelve-year-old girl who knows little about her Chinese heritage is sent to live with her grandmother in San Francisco's Chinatown.