Seventeen-year-old Ming and twenty-four-year-old Yan have very little in common: Ming, innocent and preoccupied, lives in her own world of books, music and imagination; Yan is, by contrast, sexy but cynical, beautiful but wild. She uses her looks to get what she wants from the many men in her life.

When the two girls meet and become best friends, Ming's world is changed forever. She is attracted to Yan's free-spirit, while Yan yearns for the kind of stability Ming's seriousness can bring. But their differences in upbringing and ideologies ultimately drive them apart, leaving each to face her own dark secret alone.

February Flowers is an insightful meditation on forbidden love, loss and redemption, and how a background shapes a life.

`An original and unforgettable story . . . brimming with passion, vitality, and hope' XINRAN, author of The Good Women of China