Pan had a white mother, who has passed away, and a Chinese father, whom she lives with in Chinatown. Mark Carson, a reporter, comes to Chinatown to report on a boycott. The first time he sees Pan he does not have the chance to speak to her, so he comes back to her father’s shop and inquires about the girl. Mark Carson is charming and easily wins over people’s trust. In the newsroom, he is known as “a man who would sell his soul for a story” (49). Pan and Mark eventually start spending time together. Mark is Pan’s first white friend, and through her Mark is welcomed into parts of Chinatown that no American man had ever been welcomed. On one of the many occasions that Pan remarks that she “would rather have a Chinese for a father than a white man,” (51) Mark asks is she would prefer a Chinese man or a white man for a husband, for which she gives no answer.

One evening, Mark disparages Chinatown, saying that it is not beautiful. Pan answers how regardless, "it is [her] home" (51). Mark insists Pan is white: “[T]hey do not understand you […] Your real self is alien to them.