The book narrates the story of Lanming [the author's youngest sister], a 9-year-old girl in Maoist China was diagnosed with a benign meningioma that required urgent surgery, to prevent further growth that could impair brain function, and radical removal might prevent recurrence and lead to a cure. From the author family's personal experience, this book seeks to enhance awareness regarding the rising incidence of meningiomas globally, with over 42,000 annual diagnoses in the United States. The author uses the self-sacrificing behavior of the painter Berman in O. Henry's "The Last Leaf" as a role model for herself and Lanming.
After receiving letters from the author's father and his friend, the father had lost hope in his life due to heart disease and political pressure and is in danger of committing suicide. The whole family was in a panic.
O. Henry's story of the protagonists, Jonesy and Bellman became a father and his little daughter Lanming. Lanming became Bellman. Lanming asked the author to find a thicker leaf, and almost blind Lanming wrote LOVE on the leaf with her trembling and weak hand and clipped this leaf in O. Henry's book, requesting her sister to mail it to Dad immediately.
Deeply moved, Dad quickly replied, his letter full of loving gratitude and happiness, concluding: This masterpiece created by his beloved Lanming. What makes the reader's heart ache and tears in this book is that "this leaf is Lanming's masterpiece at the end of her life," and it is indeed the "last leaf" in her short life. Unfortunately, Lanming passed away three days before her family received her father's letter. This depth of emotion, in the book of Tears in The Last Leaf, reflects the strength and beauty of human nature.