Stepping Stones

The seven-part Behind The Smile Series is the story of Lek, a bar girl in Pattaya, Thailand. Lek was born the eldest child of four in a typical rice farming family in the northern rice belt of Thailand. A catastrophe occurred out of the blue one day – her father died young with huge debts that the family knew nothing about. Lek was just twenty years of age, and the only one who could prevent the foreclosure of the family farm, and allow her younger sister and two brothers to continue their education. However, the only way she knew how was to go to work in her cousin’s bar in Pattaya.
Can a Pattaya bar girl ever go back to being a regular girlfriend or wife?
Behind The Smile is a look into one part of Thailand, a country known around the world as 'The Land of Smiles'.

Stepping Stones picks up the story of Lek, her family and friends in the village of Baan Suay four years on from where The Lady in The Tree finished. Lek and Ayr are still looking to expand, but especially Lek's career in the political arena, where she finds evidence of disturbing activity. Craig is still trying to write a best seller and Soom has graduated from university. In Stepping Stones, we are introduced to the Champunot family from Bangkok, the members of which have a profound effect on Lek, Craig and Soom - one which none of them will ever be able to forget. Stepping Stones reveals more in-depth details of life in a Thai family that has been affected by the inclusion of a falang like how they deal with the strange mixture of traditional and modern Thai life that that situation often creates.