Using footbinding as a symbol of subjugation, this book examines social change in the lives of Chinese American women, showing the stages of "unbinding" that occurred in the decades between the turn of the century and the end of World War II. The setting for this history is San Francisco, which had the largest Chinese population in the United States. The author uses oral history interviews, autbiographies, both English- and Chinese-language newspapers, government census records and photographs from both public and private archives to illuminate her treatise. While presenting larger social trends, the book highlights the many individual experiences of Chinese American women. The text's analysis of intra-ethnic class rifts sheds light on the difficulties that Chinese American women faced in their own communities, but it also reveals that these women were active agents in the making of their own history.