A returnee who has just come back from overseas, a rich young man who left home in a fit of pique, using a false identity, in an unfamiliar place, meets Xu Fanruo, the woman of his dreams. And so the story begins...
Born in the north, Xu Fanruo meets a man from a southern water town. After her younger brother's unexpected death, the Xu family uses every means at its disposal to force her to take a husband who will move into her home, driven by the deeply entrenched belief in male superiority and the need to carry on the family line. In the end, she has no choice but to run away from home.
Far from home, Xu Fanruo faces differences between northern and southern customs, lifestyles, and beliefs, discrimination based on wealth and class, schemes over inheritance and property, betrayal in love, and the hardships of doing business... This is the story of a woman growing from daughter to wife to mother, and of ordinary people at the very bottom of society struggling to make a life for themselves. Set against the north and south, with their different environments and customs, it offers a nuanced portrayal of family, friendship, and love. Over twenty turbulent years, these people at the bottom of society experience changes in both their material circumstances and their ways of thinking...
