The book explains clearly the meaning of the title. A pious man hauls in a net full of fish telling them not to be afraid, he is saving them from drowning. Of course the fish die and the man sells them in the market. He is then able to buy more nets in order to save more fish from drowning....

The parallel to the plot of the book becomes clear. The narrator is the ghost of Bibi Chen, a tour guide who dies suddenly right before she was to guide a group of her friends on a tour of China and Myanmar (Burma). A member of the group takes over as leader and they encounter many problems and develop relationships to one another as the tour progresses.

Eventually they are kidnapped by a tribe in Myanmar which has been persecuted by the Myanmar military and is now in hiding. The tour group feels great sympathy for the tribe and sincerely wants to help them.

I rather imagine Amy Tan's motive in writing this book was to reach people like me who haven't really been touched by Aung San Suu Kyi and the situation in Myanmar in any significant way. The book succeeds in bringing this to light, but I didn't feel it was as good a novel as her others.