The Road to Rekindling Life

In a year of disaster, sixteen-year-old Chun Ni and her family are driven to the brink. Her father has broken his leg, her mother is so hungry she has swollen up, and her younger brother's fever will not break.

After witnessing a tragedy in a neighbor's home, Chun Ni decides to take her family and flee the famine. She sells the few belongings they have left, managing to buy a few pounds of cornmeal to eat along the way.

They set out on the road north. After her parents pass away, Chun Ni's life is suddenly turned upside down. At her most desperate, she is taken in and saved by an older woman from a forestry camp in Northeast China.

The story focuses on Chun Ni's struggle to survive during the famine, the upheavals that later affect her and her friends, and the moment she reunites with her younger brother after years apart.

One upheaval after another along the road of life helps Chun Ni grow, time and time again.