Lily and Snow Flower are the main characters of the novel, and they live in a rural Chinese province. They live during the early and mid-1800's, so many Chinese cultural aspects are still in place, because this was the time before Mao Zedong. Lily and Snow Flower maintain a very close friendship despite the fact that they are both girls.
Both of them women, both Lily and Snow Flower have do deal with the things that are expected of women in China in this day and age. After all, Confucianism was a strictly patriarchal philosophy, and foot-binding was a common practice. Both of the girls are forced to be foot-bound, meaning that their feet are tied together until their bones break, which makes the feet easier to change shape. In China, men are attracted to a woman's feet.
Although Lily and Snow Flower are best friends, their relationship changes, especially as they age. Lily is more willing to adapt to Chinese culture, appreciating that her feet were bound by her mother as a child. This, in fact, helps her get married to a rich man because her feet are "so beautiful".
On the other hand, Snow Flower is a bit more modernist. She wants to ban all of the restrictions women face, like many of the more westernized countries. Her calls are far from heard, but over time China adapts to them. Snow Flower marries a man that abuses her and her children.
Overall, the novel describes simply how horrible it was to live in China at the time. For the most part, this was because of China's Qing rulers, who refuses to adapt to industrialization. Women were treated like property, just as slaves were in southern America, and foot-binding was a serious pain both physically and mentally.
Yet another obstacle in the way of peace was the Taiping Rebellion. Lily, Snow Flower, and their respective families flee to the mountains in order to escape the widespread terror. During the Taiping Rebellion, which was the bloodiest Civil War in Chinese history, people wanted to end the rule of the Qing. Also during this time, the British were flooding China with opium, as to get the country addicted to the drug.
