The Leftover Woman

The narrative skips back in time, 15 years earlier. Jasmine is standing outside of a Manhattan teahouse, looking through the window at the people inside. She gazes at a set of parents who are there with their young child, and a lump rises in her throat. She realizes that she has very little time before she must repay the smugglers who helped transport her to New York City. She pushes her way inside the restaurant, not without hesitation. She approaches the hostess and explains that she is there to ask about employment. She is directed to a table in the back where the owner of the restaurant sits. He is brusque and immediately intuits that she does not have papers and thus cannot work legally. As the two talk, she sees a familiar man walk by. She recognizes him as Anthony, a childhood friend from her village. Although initially happy to see her, Anthony recoils when Jasmine’s reaction to him seems mixed. There is a tangible animosity between the two, and they begin to bicker about the past. After their public argument, the restaurant owner sends her away. On her way out the door, a well-dressed woman tells her to ask about work as a cocktail waitress at Opium, a nearby restaurant. She is to tell the owner that Dawn sent her.

Jasmine stands outside of a nearby martial arts studio. She saw its logo on Anthony’s jacket during their argument in the restaurant, and she is curious about his life. After taking a moment to think about her decision, she heads inside to sign up for a self-defense course. She runs into Anthony almost immediately, and he is not happy to see her. He pulls her aside, and the two continue their argument. In the restaurant, she noticed that he was wearing a red string bracelet like the one she gave him when they were teenagers, and she wonders if it is the same one. They both, as it turns out, hoped to marry each other, but their parents stood in the way of the match. Jasmine’s parents knew that Anthony’s family wanted him to move to the United States, and they wanted a different partner for Jasmine. Although it is clear that they were both subject to forces beyond their control, Jasmine feels that there is too much anger between them, too much baggage. She storms outside, even though Anthony tries to stop her.

Jasmine recalls her journey to the United States, or “the Beautiful Country” as it is often called in China. She paid “snakeheads,” Chinese gangsters, to smuggle her to the United States. Now, she is afraid that she won’t be able to find a job quickly enough to repay them. She knows that without a job, she is vulnerable to forced sex work, a business that is lucrative for Chinese gangs both in China and in the United States. She has a jade hairpin of great value, passed down through many generations of women in her family. She brings it to a pawn shop, hoping to use it to secure a loan. The price the shop owner quotes is far below the pin’s value, and she leaves without pawning the heirloom. As she is walking out of the shop, she gets a text from Anthony. He tells her that he does not know what to say.

Jasmine remembers marrying Wen when she was only 14 years old. She didn’t realize at the time that he married her because he wanted sons and a woman to take care of his house. She had several miscarriages and was told by the midwife that the one baby she did carry to term died immediately after birth. At one point, she told Wen that she was not yet ready to try for more children, and he reassured her that it was okay. By that point in time, she knew that he had multiple mistresses and stopped trusting him.

Jasmine tries to secure a job as a receptionist for an architect but is told that her English isn’t good enough. Anthony texts her several more times, and she feels herself softening toward him. She decides to try to get a job as a waitress at Opium, and on the way there, she remembers her life in China. Because she wanted to know more about Wen’s mistresses, she searched through his computer. There, she discovered that he took their daughter from Jasmine immediately after her birth and gave her up for adoption. Because couples were only allowed one child, this was a common practice. Wen, however, was a high-ranking government official and could not publicly give up a baby. He did it secretly, making the arrangements while Jasmine was still pregnant, just in case the child turned out to be a girl. Unable to forgive this betrayal, Jasmine decided to immigrate to the US in hopes of finding her daughter. The couple who adopted the child lived in New York, and Jasmine hoped to find them.

Rebecca is in a grocery store looking for a particular kind of olive. She is at the store with her daughter, Fifi, and Fifi’s nanny, Lucy. While Rebecca searches for the right olives, she hears a commotion: A store worker has accused Fifi and Lucy, wrongly, of theft. Lucy accuses the man of racism, and he hastily retreats.

Rebecca returns to a party, a 60th-anniversary celebration for the publishing house where she is editor-in-chief. There was a scandal recently from which the company has not fully recovered, and Rebecca hopes that the party will smooth things over. She is chagrined to find out that Mason Grady, her nemesis and a former colleague at another publishing house, is crashing her event. He hopes to attract the attention of Isabel Navarro, an important author with a new book who is looking to switch publishers. Rebecca and Mason trade passive-aggressive barbs while chatting up Isabel.

Rebecca scans the crowded party looking for her husband, Brandon. She locates him and asks him to help “charm” Isabel. She’d like to secure the rights to publish Isabel’s new book. Her own career is on the line because a recent memoir that she contracted was exposed for plagiarism. The memoir was nominated for the National Book Award, but after the scandal, its nomination was retracted. Rebecca realizes that she not only needs to convince Isabel but also her agent, Gina. Gina is far less likely to overlook Rebecca’s role in the scandal (Rebecca did not catch the plagiarism or the memoir’s many other inaccuracies before publication) than Isabel.

The conversation between Rebecca, Isabel, Gina, and Brandon goes well initially. However, things take a turn after Rebecca realizes that Gina has brought her daughter, Emilia, and tries to introduce her to Fifi. The two girls attend the same ballet school and initially seem to hit it off. Fifi asks Emilia if she’d like to see her perform a magic trick. Lucy tries to get the attention of one of the catering staff, but he ignores her. The two collide, and the entire contents of his tray are emptied onto Gina’s blazer. Gina is gracious but leaves immediately.

Jasmine makes her way to Opium, hoping to secure a job. She thinks about her lost daughter, whose adopted name is Fiona (Fifi), and wonders if she will be able to locate her. As she approaches the restaurant, she sees a woman on the street whom she identifies as a sex worker and shudders at the thought of performing sex work to repay the smugglers. However, once she enters Opium, she realizes that it is not a restaurant. Exotic dancers line several stages, and she is horrified to think about having to strip to earn money. She resolves to ask for a cocktail waitressing job and finds the manager, Aunt Glory. Aunt Glory looks Jasmine up and down, and even after Jasmine shakes her hair loose, she is hesitant to offer her a job. She tells Jasmine that she should “weaponize” her looks because she will not remain beautiful for long.

Rebecca is at the gun range shooting paper targets. It is a pastime she shared with her late father, Teddy, and it still soothes her. She reflects on her marriage. There has been less intimacy lately, but she thinks that she and Brandon are still doing well. They were briefly unhappy during their difficulties conceiving a child, but they remained respectful and supportive of each other. Adopting Fifi seems like a godsend, and she still thinks that they are a strong couple. Suddenly, she looks over and sees Mason Grady next to her. She is shocked to find him at the gun range and asks him what he is doing there. The two trade barbs, and he asks her if she is poaching important authors as repayment for “Frankfurt.” She denies this and ends the conversation abruptly.

Rebecca returns home that night thinking about Mason. She realizes that she jeopardized her marriage and career in a momentary lapse of judgment in Frankfurt, Germany, and hopes that her one-time act of infidelity will not come back to haunt her.

At home, Rebecca finds Brandon, Lucy, and Fifi all sitting comfortably together reading. Rebecca is grateful for Lucy’s presence, but she does envy her nanny’s relationship with her daughter. Additionally, because Brandon speaks fluent Chinese and both he and Lucy are teaching it to Fifi, Rebecca sometimes feels left out of their relationship. Fifi seems to prefer Lucy to Rebecca and is even terrified of a fancy doll Rebecca gave her. Rebecca worries that she is not passing on enough of her own culture and family history to Fifi.

Jasmine contemplates her upcoming tryout for a waitressing job at Opium and thinks back to her childhood. She was a twin, and her mother was one of the few women in their village who was allowed to have two children. Her mother favored her twin brother, and Jasmine learned to make do with less love and attention. As a girl in a culture that placed more value on boys, Jasmine struggled. Her parents married her off early to Wen. She was initially happy about the chance to escape her parents’ household, but marriage quickly lost its luster. Jasmine was beautiful even as a girl, and Wen soon became jealous and paranoid. He limited her freedom of movement and enlisted his parents’ help in spying on her.

Jasmine realizes that she now has a chance to use her beauty to her advantage, but as she puts on a tight, revealing dress, she feels distinctly uncomfortable. Still, she needs the job. She has reservations, but she vows to do her best.

Jasmine makes her way to the club, feeling naked in her revealing dress. Opium is a Chinese-owned establishment that caters to Asian rather than white tastes. Still, Jasmine realizes that it is exploitative. Her experience with Chinese smugglers has taught her to be wary of Chinese-on-Chinese exploitation, and she hopes to be able to make money without having to compromise herself. Aunt Glory is pleased with Jasmine’s appearance and even more pleased that Jasmine swears to be uninterested in sex, dating, or even romance.

Rebecca is trying to get some late-night work done, but Brandon has other ideas. He tries to seduce her away from her book, but she protests. She is under so much stress at work and tells him that she truly needs to finish her task. He reassures her that he understands, and she thinks back to their early days together. They met while he was doing research in China and she was backpacking. He was so handsome, and she was smitten by him. He fell for her just as hard, and she recalls feeling grateful for his love. She softens, and the two end up having sex. Afterward, he immediately falls asleep, and she is startled by a scratching noise. It is their cat Calypso playing with what she thinks is a cookie wrapper. She picks the item up and sees that it is a condom. She is shocked because she and Brandon have not used condoms for many years.