The girl who grew up in a bandit's den finally discovered that the mountain itself was a prison - and her mother was the most dangerous prisoner.
Eighteen-year-old Xu Hongying has known since she was a child that her father is the bandit leader who lives on the top of the mountain, and her mother is the wife of Yazhai who was kidnapped by him. The village has high walls and deep iron gates. Their father does not allow them to study or go down the mountain. They only rely on an old-fashioned telephone to communicate with the outside world. During the war years, supplies were scarce, and Hongying and her younger siblings were like birds in captivity, with even their breath smelling like rust.
It wasn't until she discovered that her father had another family outside, until she saw the blood-stained account books that her mother secretly hid, until she broke into the children who were supposed to "die" in the cellar of the cottage - that Hongying understood that this mountain trapped not only their bodies, but also deeper secrets.
Is the mother a prisoner resigned to her fate, or a dormant avenger?
Is his father a violent bandit, or a helpless guardian in troubled times?
And when Hongying finally escaped from the mountains with her siblings, she discovered that the most terrifying cage was never a physical wall.
