Plot Outline

Outline
Characters:
- Ayan, age eighteen. He is a Manchu boy, who is the son of a rich Manchu military official, Bayan. He is arranged to marry a Manchu girl, Mei, who is the daughter of another rich military official. He is in love with Sun.
- Sun, age seventeen, a poor Chinese girl. She is also arranged to marry. Her fiancé is named Yuan, a Chinese merchant. She is in love with Ayan.
- Bayan, Ayan’s father. He is an important man and very close friends with the emperor. His son marrying a Chinese woman would be seen as a betrayal, and he would disown Ayan.
- Wen, Sun’s older sister, is the only one who knows about Ayan and Sun’s relationship. She does not approve, but she will not fight her sister, because she doesn’t want her to end up the way she did. (In an unhappy marriage with a man she doesn’t love.)

I. Exposition
- Ayan and Sun are secretly in love
- Manchu-Chinese marriages are banned
- Chinese are punished for inter-racial marriages
- Their parents, especially Ayan’s dad, disapprove
- They keep their relationship a secret

II. Rising Action
- Someone finds out, tell authorities

III. Climax
- They are separated
- Sun is put in jail
- She outsmarts a guard
- Escapes

IV. Falling Action
- Sun finds Ayan
- They run away out of China to Britain

V. Resolution
- Live together in Britain

External Conflicts—Manchu-Chinese marriages, relationships, and even personal meetings banned. Arranged marriages for both woman and man are already planned.

Internal Conflicts—Feel like they are deserting their families… What they are doing is “dishonorable”.

Connection—This story’s plot flow goes from confusion to order, dilemma to decision, and problem to solution, because both main characters have solve their own internal dilemmas, problems, and confusion. If Ayan and Sun chose to be together, they must leave their current life and start a new one away from China. They will be thrown out by their families and shunned by the Chinese and the Manchu.