“The Golden Cangue” is set in early 20th-century Shanghai, just before the end of the Qing dynasty. It opens with Feng-hsiao asleep in the servant’s quarters of the Chiang household. She is an enslaved girl who has been brought there by the newly arrived Third Mistress. Feng-hsiao talks with the personal maid of the Second Mistress, Little Shuang. Shuang tells her that the Second Mistress, Ch’i-ch’iao, comes from the Ts’ao family, who owns a sesame oil shop and is of a lower class than the Chiangs; despite this class difference, the marriage was approved because Second Master has a disability and the family needs someone to look after him. Little Shuang tells Feng-hsiao that Ch’i-ch’iao and Second Master have been married for five years with two children and that Ch’i-ch’iao’s brother is suspected of having stolen things from the house. Old Mrs. Chao tells them to stop gossiping and go to bed.

The next day, Feng-hsiao is helping Third Mistress Lan-hsien get dressed when Eldest Mistress Tai-chen comes in. She tells Third Mistress that Second Master and Ch’i-ch’iao smoke opium together. Third Mistress and Eldest Mistress Tai-chen wait outside Old Mistress’s room to greet her. While they wait, they help the second daughter, Yün-tse, crack walnuts.