Face of a Stranger

Set in an unnamed California town in the early twentieth century, Face of a Stranger tells the story of Kikue and Shino, two women who came to America from Japan as picture brides in arranged marriages, only to discover upon their arrival that they had been duped into lives of prostitution. One day in China Alley (the quarter where the prostitutes work and live), both women are jarred when they encounter Takashi Arai, a young migrant laborer and indolent rake who was forced to leave Japan in disgrace and who now works for two elderly hakujin (white) sisters. Kikue and Shino are certain they recognize his face as that of the bogus groom in the photograph used to deceive them. Even as the two women are scheming to buy their freedom from their pimp, Kato, they begin plotting their revenge against Arai with the help of Hana, a beautiful girl who may or may not be mad; the hapless farmer Kogoro Doi; and the unwitting Inadas, two zealous Christian converts. Face of a Stranger is a sly, farcical tale of dissembling, revenge, and mistaken identity.