Set against the personal experience of Li Lini, a rural girl from a poor family who heads to the city for work, this novel centers on the romantic conflict between Li Lini and Yang Hongying, two country girls employed at the same factory. Their story is complemented by the romances of five other rural couples: Li Lini and Zhang Dapeng, Yang Hongying and Zhang Xiaopeng, Yang Hongxiu and Tang Baosheng, Li Weiqiang and Dong Lanlan, and Zheng Xisheng and Tao Lili. Figures such as Hu Jinhua, Cui Yufeng, Fang Cuilian, Xu Tingting, Xu Dianchen, Zhu Caixia, Qi Haiping, Liu Jianhua, and Chen Wenjie provide a backdrop to their lives. Through a complex plot and the characters’ intertwined joys and sorrows, the novel portrays the determination of Chinese women migrant workers, who leave their homes in pursuit of a happy life. It depicts their historic journey from countryside to city, from fields to factories, and celebrates their immense contribution to China’s modernization and to bringing Chinese manufacturing to the world.
