From her days as a young child growing up in the village of Lishi, south of the Yangtze River in China, Meihong Xu aspired to become a leader in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Picked as one of only 12 girls to train as military intelligence officers at the PLA Institute for International Relations in Nanjing, Meihong felt proud that she was on the way to having her youthful dreams fulfilled. However her cadet training eventually elicited feelings of skepticism and doubt as she became more fully aware of the “truths” under which the Chinese political system operated under Chairman Mao. Her idealistic dreams of a rewarding career were brought to an abrupt halt with her arrest and imprisonment while a student at the Center for Chinese and American Studies where she had become friends with Larry Engelmann, an American professor on whom she had been hired to spy.

This was an incredible book. The series of events that led to the marriage of Meihong Xu and Larry Engelmann and Meihong’s flight from China were related in a most heart-quickening way. It brought my pity for her naiveté in the beginning, but later awe for her mettle. An eye-opening look at the Chinese political sytem during the Chinese Cultural Revolution caused feelings of disbelief and disgust, but also a sense of gratitude for personal rights guaranteed by other political systems throughout the free world. The unexpected ending to this book brought tears to my eyes and a bit of sadness as well.