NICHOLAS YOUNG—NYU history professor and heir to one of the largest fortunes in Asia. He innocently took his girlfriend to Singapore for his best friend’s wedding, not realizing how it was going to ruin her life. Now they live together in Manhattan, despite the wishes of his mother and grandmother.
RACHEL CHU—An American-born-Chinese (“ABC”) economics professor who is now the envy of every eligible woman in Singapore because of her relationship with Nicholas.
ELEANOR YOUNG—Nicholas’s estranged mother, who could devour Tiger Moms for lunch. She divides her time between Sydney and Singapore.
SHANG SU YI—Nicholas’s imperious grandmother. The matriarch of the Shang and Young clans, she lives at her palatial Singapore estate, Tyersall Park, and refuses to forgive Nicholas for defying her wishes about whom he should marry.
ASTRID LEONG—Nicholas’s ravishingly beautiful and faultlessly elegant cousin. A “double heiress” destined to inherit from both sides of her aristocratic family, she lives in Singapore with her tech-titan husband, Michael Teo, and son, Cassian.
EDISON CHENG—The maniacally snobbish Hong Kong cousin of Nicholas Young and Astrid Leong. With a personality not even a mother could love, Eddie works in private banking but really spends more time getting fitted for custom suits at his tailor’s.
OLIVER T’SIEN—An art and antiquities historian whose real expertise is knowing all the gossip on Asia’s most important families. Naturally, he’s also Nicholas’s cousin.
KITTY PONG—The former Hong Kong soap-opera star who broke up with Alistair Cheng and took off to Las Vegas to get married to Bernard Tai, the boorish playboy son of tycoon Dato’ Tai Toh Lui.
CHARLIE WU—Astrid Leong’s first love and ex-fiancé, a Hong Kong–based tech billionaire.
GOH PEIK LIN—Rachel Chu’s best friend from college. Daughter of a very wealthy Singapore real estate family, she had no idea there were families even richer than hers.