Includes bibliographical references (p. [346]-404) and index.

Pilgrims -- Leaving Fujian -- Eighteen-thousand-dollar woman -- Dai Lo of the Fuk Ching -- Swiftwater -- Year of the snake -- Mombasa -- The phantom ship -- The Teaneck massacre -- Mutiny in the Atlantic -- A well-founded fear -- The fat man -- Freedom birds -- The goldfish and the Great Wall -- Parole -- Snakeheads international -- Catching Lilly Zhang -- The mother of all Snakeheads.

The rise and fall of an unlikely international crime boss--Sister Ping--and the intricate human trafficking network she created from her business in New York City's Chinatown, together with a panoramic tale about the gangland gunslingers who worked for her, the immigration and law enforcement officials who pursued her, and the generation of penniless immigrants who risked death to realize their own version of the American dream.