"For Zhu Wong, a twenty-fifth-century prisoner in China the choice is clear: Stand trial for murder or volunteer for the Golden Nineties Project, a time-travel mission to the San Francisco of 1895. Once T-ported to the past, she must carry out detailed instructions involving a young Chinese girl and a strange, elaborate brooch called an aurelia." "But the bawdy and boisterous age to which she is sent - a time of opulent wealth and grinding poverty, of dazzling freedom and ruthless oppression, of cheap life and casual death - has many surprises in store. A fervent women's activist, Zhu will become an indentured servant to the city's most notorious madam. A believer in her own independence, she will find herself falling desperately in love with the alcoholic heir to a fading fortune." "And when the carefully made plans of the project begin to go awry, Zhu will discover that the choices she makes not only affect the distant future...but mean the difference between her own life or death."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved