This is a family epic that spans nearly a century. It uses the fate of the Lin family in Hainan Island as a mirror to reflect the changes in China's southern borderland from the late Qing Dynasty to the reform and opening up.
Lin Xiuying, a tenacious family soul, was born into a squire family in the late Qing Dynasty. She witnessed with her own eyes that her younger brothers - one devoted herself to Huangpu ideals and the other pursued academic truth - parted ways in the tide of the times. Amid the waves of war, land reform, turmoil and opening up, she used female flexibility and strength to support the backbone of her family and connect the fates of overseas Chinese, teachers, revolutionaries and other figures.
From the moonlit shadow of the coconut grove in the old house in Qiongzhou, to the alienation of the literati in Guangzhou City, to the transnational ties of overseas remittances from Nanyang, the novel uses the joys and sorrows of four generations to write about the struggle, perseverance and choices of individuals in the turning point of history. Finally, in the echo of the times, it precipitates a long and thick scroll about home, roots and human nature.
