The Joy Luck Club is a compilation of 16 intertwined stories, divided into four sections. The four sections follow the traditional arc of plot development; the stories within them also follow the arc. The first story in the book, "The Joy Luck Club", is the exposition of the book and the story "A Pair of Tickets" is the resolution. Each story has a climax, but the book as a whole does not; for example the story “Best Quality”. The book's exposition is found in the story "Joy Luck Club"; "The Joy Luck Club" is the first story in the book and sets up the rest of Jing-mei's plot. Jing-mei recounts how her mother fled the Japanese invasion of China and barely survived: "Pushing... towards Chungking, until... I lost everything except three fancy silk dresses that I wore one on the other. She had two daughters at the time and had to leave them on the side of the road because she thought she was going to die. The women of the Joy Luck Club want to send Jing-mei to China so she can meet her lost sisters. An-mei says this before the month of Jing-mei...