Dimensions
128 x 197 x 26mm
To be born female is curse enough. To be born female with an unlucky teardrop mole is surely a mark of the gods' displeasure . . .
It is 1951, the height of communist guerrilla activity in the former British colony of Malaya. Father Francois Martin is sent from his native Toulouse to the little town of Luping to save souls. There he meets Mei Kwei, a beautiful and intense Chinese woman who has been forced by her parents to marry a prosperous Catholic.
One day, she witnesses a strange happening. One of the townswomen, caught in adultery by her husband, is dragged out, half naked, and tied to a tree in a public place for maximum, disgrace. Father Martin saves her and, in so doing, shames a whole town into realisation of its callousness and hypocrisy. This incident stirs the dark pool of anger, fear and longing in Mei Kwei, transforming admiration of the priest into love and desire.
Against the intensity of her passion, Father Martin's fierce commitment to his vocation cracks to reveal the man beneath. The demands of the flesh and spirit come into fearful collision and the final drama of despair, hope and renewal is played out against a landscape torn apart by terrorist grenades.
