Immigrant Quok Shee was the "alleged wife" of Chew Hoy Quong. When she arrived in San Francisco, she was detained and interrogated for nearly 2 years on Angel Island, mostly because Chinese women were suspected to be prostitutes in that era.

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     More than an inch thick, her "investigation case file" was opened in September 1916 and was not closed until August 1918. She was repeatedly interrogated, denied access to a lawyer, plagued by depression, subjected to smallpox, and was isolated from a husband who was her only contact in America, yet whom she hardly knew.

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     The file contained 150 pages of legal maneuvering, inquisitorial interrogations, medical evaluations, intrigue court orders--all because one Chinese woman tried to enter the United States.

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     In 1927, her husband Chew told immigration authorities that his wife had complained he was not giving her enough money and had run off with another man.