A senior Thai politician, Sang Phathanothai, is skeptical of Thailand's Cold War U.S. connections. With the approval of the Prime Minister he sends his young son and daughter to grow up in China as a gesture of good will. The daughter, Sirin, recounts her life with Liao Chenghzi, Zhou Enlai and others forty years later.

Some absolutely fascinating glimpses of the Chinese elite (Zhou saying one thing in public while admitting to her that people are starving during the Great Leap Forward; Mao at a swimming pool with other leaders; Liao Chengzhi looking at the smashed remains of his house during the Cultural Revolution) as well as of Field Marshal Pibulsongkram, Pridi Phanomyong in exile from Thailand, and other Thai leaders. She also recounts an early proposal for Sino-American rapprochement from President Johnson, relayed to China for her father, and the painful consequences it entailed for her during the Cultural Revolution.