Extraordinary Lives chronicles the pursuit of freedom and justice as experienced by two people of very different backgrounds, John Artis and Anhua Gao. John Artis was arrested along with Rubin “Hurricane” Carter in 1966 and charged with the murder of three white people. John was twice convicted, but he is finally vindicated in 1985 when a federal court judge overturned the convictions. A child of parents hailed as revolutionary heroes by Mao Tse Tung, Anhua Gao is in a position of privilege. However, her parents die, leaving Anhua and her siblings to grow up in the chaotic realm of Maoist China. Anhua, who writes and speaks English, is then accused of being an enemy agent and imprisoned. Escaping that fate and eventually China, Anhua tells the story of her struggle to survive the ideological machine of Red China.