When the secrets of the past come to light, Mingxia decides to escape from rural China to industrial China with no more than a backpack. The doll factory where she finds work soon becomes a gateway to a dangerous world with rules that she must quickly learn if she wants to survive.

Set in contemporary China and combining elements of a coming of age story with the intrigue and mystery of a psychological thriller and an aftertaste of magical realist literature, Las Muñecas Chinas poses the question whether children should pay for the sins of their parents.

In a nod to the factory, seemingly unmatching doll body parts are mosaiced on the front cover, forming pieces of puzzle. Broken into three separate pieces, the title itself is also transformed into missing parts of the puzzle. The use of red adds a Chinese flavor, while the condensed, sans serif typeface sets the crime tone. On the back cover, the head of a doll appears on a red background, indicative of the revelations from the past that haunt the protagonist.