The Emerald Cluster — twelve young women whose fates were tied to the Jia dynasty — took shape as the garden filled with life.

Shi Xiangyun, whose playful nature hid scholarly brilliance. Miao Yu, the Buddhist nun whose purity was contradicted by secret longings. Jia Yingchun, gentle as spring and just as easily broken.

But it was the rivalry between Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai that gave the garden its dramatic heart.

Daiyu, walking alone one morning, overheard maids gossiping in the garden: "The old Lady favors Baochai. They say she will marry Baoyu."

Her face went white as winter. She walked to the Bamboo Lodge and wept, the sound blending with the wind.

Baoyu came to her. He found her writing poetry, tears staining the paper.

"Why do you weep?"

"The whole house wants you to marry her. And maybe they are right. She is everything I am not."

Baoyu took her hand. His jade stone glowed. "I care what my heart wants."

Daiyu pulled away. "Your heart is fickle as the wind, Baoyu. One day with me, the next with Baochai, the next with the actresses."

She was right. And that was Baoyu tragedy — he loved them all, and thus loved none as he ought. In the Red Chamber, love was not a fairytale. It was a battlefield.