God's Little Daughters examines a set of letters written by Chinese Catholic women from a small village in Manchuria to their French missionary, "Father Lin," or Dominique Maurice Pourquie, who in 1870 had returned to France in poor health after spending twenty-three years at the local mission of the Societe des Missions Etrangeres de Paris (MEP).

The letters were from three sisters of the Du family, who had taken religious vows and committed themselves to a life of contemplation and worship that allowed them rare privacy and the opportunity to learn to read and write....