St. Clair, An-Mei Hsu, and Suyuan Woo. The members have mainly played mahjong and told each other stories over the years. They emigrated from China, their native country, remarried, and gave birth to children in America. Suyuan's daughter, June, replaced her when Suyuan died four months before the time the film is set. The mothers have high hopes for their daughters' successes, but the daughters struggle through "anxieties, feelings of inadequacy, and failures." Throughout the film, the mothers and daughters bond by learning to understand each other and by overcoming their conflicts. Prologue In the prologue tale, narrated by June, a woman bought a swan in China from a market vendor who was selling it as "a duck that stretched its neck [to become] a goose." She kept it as her pet and brought it to the United States. When the immigration officials took it away from her, she struggled to grab the swan away, but was only able to retrieve one feather. For a long time, the woman had kept the feather, planning to give it to her daughter someday. Then the film transitions to June's farewell surprise party in San Francisco for her upcoming reunion with her long-lost twin sisters in China. Among the guests are members of the Joy Luck Club, their daughters, other relatives, and friends. The characters below narrate their journeys to the audience while they reflect upon their pasts. Lindo and Waverly Jong In China, four-year-old Lindo is betrothed to Tyan Yu, the son of the wealthy Huang family, and at 15 moves into the Huang household. She spends the next four years in a childless and loveless marriage, earning the ire of her mother-in-law for failing to bear a son. Lindo overhears a servant girl telling her lover that she is pregnant, prompting him to abandon her. Plotting to leave the marriage without dishonoring herself, her family, and her in-laws, Lindo pretends to have a nightmare in which Tyan Yu's ancestor expresses his displeasure at the marriage. She also claims that the ancestor has impregnated the servant girl with Tyan Yu's child, and that the matchmaker who arranged the marriage intentionally and wrongly paired Lindo and Tyan Yu for money. Furious, Mrs. Huang orders the matchmakers out of the Huangs' lives, allows the servant girl to marry Tyan Yu, and eventually gets the grandson she has desired. Lindo finally leaves the house and