This novel follows six high school roommates: Gong Dagang, Cai Zhitian, Chen Qiangjun, Li Jiajun, Wang Xianming, and Gu Huahui, each representing workers, farmers, soldiers, students, merchants, and officials. It recounts in detail their studies, romances, careers, and business ventures, reflecting the customs and relationships, joys and sorrows, and struggles of their generation over the two decades beginning in the early 1990s.
