I don't know how old I was when I watched my mother's murder, nor do I know how old I am today. So opens this memoir. The illegitimate daughter of a Korean peasant and an American GI, Elizabeth spent her early years as a social outcast, because of the Korean taboo against the mixing of races. Ostracized by her mother's family and village, she and her mother were regularly pelted with stones on their way home from the rice fields. Yet because of her mother's love and calm acceptance of fate, inspired by her deep Buddhist faith, there was a tranquil happiness in the intense and close bond...