In an old village a few miles outside of Shanghai, a blind soothsayer warns Syn that she will never find happiness in love and is destined to seek her revenge on men for past wrongs. Her recurring nightmare of death by drowning, he tells her, points at truth: in a vivid "past life" that ended in 1918, Syn was thrown into the HuangPu River in a pig's basket as punishment for committing adultery.A week later, Syn leaves Shanghai for the streets of modern Sydney to study the English language on a temporary visa. After the Tiananmen Square massacre strands her in Australia with no money or prospects, Syn becomes entangled in a steamy and consuming affair with a married butcher named Zhu.Though ever sensible of the soothsayer's predictions, Syn, in the grip of passion, is full of hope for the future. Perhaps this time, the couple's feelings for each other will be able to alter fate. Or are the paths of their lives already destined? Read Less