 With the help of many people, including an old scholar and a white missionary, his goal is eventually attained.Perhaps because of its colonial overtones, this book has fallen out of favor on recommendation lists.As the book opens, the widowed Fu Be-be arrives on Chair-makers Way in Chungking, China, with her 13-year-old son Yuin-fah and a letter from a village friend to Tang Yu-shu, a master coppersmith, asking that Young Fu be given an apprenticeship in Tang's establishment.