Set in 1930s China during the Japanese occupation, The Tea Set is the story of Siu-mui, a young Chinese woman with a powerful and controlling Warlord father. She rejects her father's attempts to marry her off into the proper family. She rejects the idea of marriage as well and ends up instead pursuing her education in Shanghai. Here she falls in love with her young professor who is not only the son of her father's political adversary but also involved in the early communist uprising. War throws them together, but family and Chinese tradition tear them apart. Their only hope to continue their torrid love is to leave the country. But her father's reach is far, and Siu-mui is sent away to America with no chance to get word to her lover. This is not a romance novel but a story of love, karma, fate, and paying for one's self-perceived sins.

The story immerses the reader in Chinese culture, the spirit world, and superstitions.