During Grain Rain in 1973, the boy Shi Wa wakes from hunger on the Loess Plateau in the Northwest. His ribs press against the kang mat, and his stomach feels as empty as a slope scoured by the yellow earth's winds. His father, Old Shi, has him shoulder a peddler's pack. Officially, they travel from village to village trading needles and thread; in truth, they scrape by on a precarious living of begging and smuggling goods. He teaches Shi Wa to use the ruse “the earth moved to the east of the main house” to cadge food, hide crumpled bills in a slipknot in his hem, and use the bamboo handle of the peddler's pack to brush dew from the road, and thorns from the path to survival.
