IT MAY BE DIFFICULT for many readers of this novel to appreciate that the world Mimi Chan describes did not end that long ago - a world of slavery, rampant adultery, opium smoking and bound feet.
She tells the story of a wealthy Chinese businessman born in 1885, his nine wives including eight concubines, and their complicated and often tragic lives, first in Guangzhou and then in a mansion on the Peak.
Chan is amply qualified to write such a novel, as her father-in-law had nine wives, although she stresses in the preface that this is a work of fiction and that she is not writing about her relatives.
Each chapter focuses on a member of the fictitious household, including some of the concubines of Lee Pak Hung, known by the sobriquet The King. This family saga spans the 20th century, with the last surviving concubine, or 'little wife', living, in her 90s, in a public housing flat in present-day Hong Kong.
The King's first wife is not a concubine, but it is not long before his eye starts to wander and he looks around for a younger, more appealing woman and one who can bring him a male heir.
When he tires of one little wife, he simply acquires a new one. In pre-communist rural China, selling a girl to a well-to-do man meant a lot of money for a farmer and ensured a decent existence, of sorts, for his daughter.
Once a concubine is broken in by The King, she is said to have 'entered the door'. His many mistresses are known as 'outside encounters'. Even when he no longer desires one of his women, he continues to look after them, with the exception of the third concubine who is beaten and thrown out of the house for infidelity.