Daughters of the Sun and Moon (2026) is a historical novel by Lisa See, an author known for her best-selling fiction exploring the lives of Chinese and Chinese American women. The novel is set in the violent, dusty pueblo of 1870s Los Angeles, a city rife with racial hostility and lawlessness. The story follows three young Chinese women whose lives intersect on the city’s Calle de los Negros: Dove, a beautiful scholar’s daughter sold into a wealthy marriage; Petal, a peasant woman tricked by her father and sold to sex traffickers; and Moon, an educated doctor’s wife who chronicles their shared history. As their paths converge in the face of brutal circumstances, the three women form an unbreakable bond. The novel examines themes of Survival Through Female Solidarity, The Commodification of Female Beauty, and The Assertion of Chinese Women’s Humanity.

Like See’s works such as Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2005) and The Island of Sea Women (2019), Daughters of the Sun and Moon is inspired by the lives of real women and historical events. The novel explores a dark and often-erased chapter of US history: the Chinese Massacre of 1871 in Los Angeles, one of the largest mass lynchings in the US. See is a New York Times best-selling author who has received numerous accolades for her work, including the Golden Spike Award from the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California and the Historymakers Award from the Chinese American Museum. 

This guide refers to the 2026 Scribner hardcover edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, child death, death by suicide, graphic violence, rape, sexual violence, child sexual abuse, child abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, racism, gender discrimination, pregnancy loss, and animal cruelty.

Plot Summary

In 1870, three young Chinese women are sent on life-altering journeys to the violent, dusty pueblo of Los Angeles, California. Yut Ho, a beautiful scholar’s daughter nicknamed “Dove,” is sold by her family to be the second wife of Old Man Sing, a wealthy, elderly merchant. Dove travels in a second-class cabin across the Pacific, believing that she’s destined for a life of comfort and romance. On the same ship, hidden in the hold with many other women, is a peasant woman nicknamed “Worthless Girl.” Her father has tricked her and sold her to the criminal Hip Yee Tong: She has been given the name “Petal” and is being trafficked into the United States for sexual exploitation. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Yue, an educated woman called “Moon” by her American acquaintances, assists her husband, Dr. Chee Long “Gene” Tong, a respected practitioner of Chinese medicine. Moon navigates the racial tensions of the city and carries her private sorrow that she hasn’t yet conceived a child.

After the ship docks in San Francisco, Petal is stripped and auctioned off to Headman Sam Yuen, the powerful leader of the Nin Yung Tong gang of Los Angeles. Dove travels with them to Los Angeles, placed under Headman Sam’s protection until she’s delivered to her new husband. The three women’s lives converge in Moon’s apartment on the Calle de los Negros, in the heart of the Chinese quarter. Old Man Sing takes Dove to be examined by Dr. Gene Tong to confirm her “virginity.” Shortly after, Sam takes Petal for medical care after she attempts to run away but is caught and badly beaten. A powerful, unspoken bond forms between the three women. Petal tries to survive her circumstances in Sam’s brothel, the Midnight Garden, while Dove lives a cloistered existence, first treated as a beautiful object displayed in her husband’s shop and later locked in their apartment after Sing becomes consumed by jealousy.

Simmering rivalry between the Nin Yung Tong and the rival gang Hong Chow Tong, led by Headman Yo Hing, boils over. Seeking to strike at his enemy, Headman Yo orchestrates Petal’s kidnapping and torture. She’s rescued by the police and taken to Moon’s apartment to recuperate. During her recovery, Gene allows Petal to cultivate a garden of medicinal herbs, giving her a renewed sense of purpose and a connection to the earth she loves. Moon also helps Petal send a letter and money to her family in China, arranging for her younger brother, Ah Loo, to come to the US. The tong war escalates when Yo’s chief enforcer, Three-Finger Lee, kidnaps Dove. After a series of abductions and rescues involving the official US legal system, Yo captures Dove. He and his wife, who are childless, intend to forcibly impregnate Dove with Yo’s child. Dove, pregnant with Old Man Sing’s child, suffers a miscarriage from the trauma of being raped. Lee, acting as her guard, secretly falls in love with her.

On October 24, 1871, assassins hired by Headman Sam attempt to murder Headman Yo on the street. In the ensuing gunfight, a white rancher named Robert Thompson is accidentally killed. A mob of over 500 American and Mexican men, inflamed by cries that “[t]he Chinese are killing whites wholesale” (265), descends on the Calle de los Negros to exact revenge. Petal is trapped in a store as the mob shoots through the roof and tries to burn the building down. From the street, she witnesses the lynching of her newly arrived brother, Ah Loo. The mob drags Moon and Gene from their home, which they loot. Moon is forced to watch as the rioters torture her husband, cut off his finger to steal his diamond ring, and shoot him in the head before hanging his body. During the riot, Three-Finger Lee asks Dove to run away and live with him; when she refuses, her rapes her.

In the aftermath of the massacre, which leaves 18 Chinese men dead, Petal finds Moon at the site of her husband’s murder and helps her back to their ravaged apartment. There, Moon realizes that she’s pregnant with Gene’s child. As the community buries its dead, Petal, using money she has secretly taken from Headman Sam, joins Moon in a small house belonging to a kind neighbor, Cayetano Apablasa. Vowing to find justice for her husband, Moon files a criminal complaint against Headman Yo. Petal, meanwhile, discovers the house where Dove is being held. Moon confronts Yo and uses the threat of her testimony to bargain for Dove’s freedom. Dove is rescued, pregnant with Three-Finger Lee’s child. While living together, the three women support each other as Moon gives birth to a son, Gene, and Dove gives birth to a daughter, Pearl. The criminal trials for the massacre yield a few manslaughter convictions, but the verdicts are quickly overturned on a legal technicality, leaving the murderers to walk free. 

Looking back in 1926, an 82-year-old Moon reflects on the women’s shared lives. They raised their children together, building a family out of tragedy. Petal lived a long and full life, dying surrounded by a family who cherished her. Dove, now blind from years of embroidery work, lives peacefully with Moon, the matriarch of a thriving family in a new Chinatown. Moon considers their lives proof of an unbreakable bond and deep resilience.