The Adoption, is the story of a new born girl baby born in rural China. Because of her gender, and for no other reason, with the umbilical cord still attached, she is thrown down a well," the well of lost children" by her father, the insane son of the last emperor, but she survives. This story explores the social consequences of the Chinese one child policy established in 1979. Since then it has been estimated that more than 15,000,000 new born girl babies have disappeared, most through infanticide and even some through cannibalism. China has the world's highest rate of suicides among women of child bearing age. The pressure to produce that first born male is enormous. When it doesn't happen the woman gets the blame. "A son takes care of his parents, but a daughter takes care of her husband's parents." The baby is immediately rescued by a corrupt police chief associated with a crime syndicate involved in human trafficking, and eventually is placed in their orphanage and prepared for adoption. The baby has a secret that makes her a very valuable commodity in the adoption market. She is the granddaughter of the last emperor of China, Pu Yi of the Ching Dynasty. There are wealthy people throughout the world who would pay enormous amounts for a child of that status. The crime syndicate negotiates the sale of the child to a rich Russian oligarch who accumulated her wealth in construction, and thinks she can penetrate the booming Chinese construction economy with a Chinese child of royal status. She believes being the mother of the heir to the Ching Dynasty would afford her much influence. There is a mistake at the orphanage and the baby is given up for adoption to an American couple, who had no knowledge of the baby's royal status. When the mistake is discovered the crime syndicate attempts to buy her back. When the American couple refuses the crime syndicate kidnaps her. The crime syndicate didn't know that the American father who claimed on the adoption application to be a building contractor, was instead a paramilitary operative for the CIA who has a reputation as a "problem solver, using whatever means it takes to get the job done." He tracks his adopted daughter to Shanghai and then to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, eliminating a few members of the crime syndicate along the way, and recovers his adopted daughter. In the epilogue the child as an adult reflects on her past and visits the village of her birth, including the cemetery, and forgives her father while standing over his grave.
