Successful bestselling author Lisa See is an American with Chinese roots. She was born in Paris and lives in the United States, but the Chinese theme is invariably present in her novels, translated into dozens of languages. "Girls from Shanghai" is a novel about war, love, wandering and emigration, but above all about the relationship between two sisters, with all the inevitable difficulties, rivalries, resentments and irresistible affection for each other. The story of Pearl and May, daughters of a wealthy Shanghai merchant, begins in the pre-war era. Beautiful, cheerful, carefree, they pose for artists for calendars and advertising and lead a free European lifestyle, hoping to marry for love, and not by conspiracy, as has happened for thousands of years in China. However, the father, who carefully hid his ruin from the family, sells them as wives to two Chinese from Los Angeles without the knowledge of his daughters. The sisters decide to break the marriage contract and stay in Shanghai, but war with Japan begins. Bombs rain down on the city, and the father is threatened by the local mafia, to whom he owes a huge sum. After much ordeal, Pearl and May, fleeing death, finally go to the United States...