For Chinese New Year, Niang gifts the older children old-fashioned, hand-me-down clothing, while her children receive stylish European fashions. This injustice proves to be the last straw for the five oldest children, and they begin to conspire to end Niang’s tyrannical rule over the household. Niang overhears them and decides to undermine them by favoring Big Sister, thereby removing her leadership from the group. Big Sister is offered a room on the second floor, and she begins to behave in a self-superior way just like Niang and her children. Meanwhile, Adeline develops a passion for writing in school, and she soon gains a reputation as the class storyteller.

Adeline befriends a girl at school named Wu Chun-mei, an athletic only child whose family has business connections to the United States. Wu Chun-mei frequently lends Adeline books in English. One day, she and her father notice Adeline walking home and offer her a ride, but Adeline refuses until she gets caught in a severe rainstorm without a coat. Afterward, Wu Chun-mei accompanies Adeline on her walks every day.

American forces arrive in China after defeating Japan in World War II, and a popular craze for American culture soon follows.