The Porcelain Moon follows the intertwined lives of two families during the final days of the First World War.
Pauline Deng is an illegitimate daughter, living with her Chinese uncle and cousin Theo in Paris. They run an antiques shop. Pauline is good with numbers and attractive, but her prospects are limited, and her uncle’s “first wife” is arranging Pauline’s marriage and return to China. Pauline secretly leaves for the town of Noyelle-sur-Mer, where she hopes to find Theo and convince him to negotiate her release from her uncle.
In Noyelle-sur-Mer, Pauline takes a room at Camille Rousell’s. Unbeknownst to her, the married Camille is Theo’s lover. Camille has married out of obligation and is secretly saving money to escape her abusive husband. She loves Theo but her situation is dangerous and she is determined to leave under her own steam.
These two women, trapped by marriage and the social obligations of the time, are bold and brave in their pursuit of happiness and independence. They are living during a well-documented time, but readers will be less familiar with the history of the 140,000 Chinese workers who were brought to Europe as non-combatant labour during the war. They were serving as civilians for the British and French, and faced discrimination and were subsequently written out of the history books.