The Lotus and the Storm is a novel about war and its casualties by Lan Cao. Cao is professor of international law at the Chapman University School of Law. She left Vietnam in 1975. The novel tells the story of a family whose lives are inextricably bound to and altered by the tragic events that led to the fall of Saigon. The chapters alternate between the life of a once decorated soldier, now weak and ailing, in his home in the Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C. and that of his daughter, Mai, who grew up in Saigon's twin city, Cholon.