Through the eyes of an ordinary middle-aged man, the novel traces more than thirty years of his life: his boyhood in Songkou Ancient Town, his youth spent moving around the south, the ups and downs of his career and marriage, his father's grave illness, and the many times he starts over and makes peace with the past.
The novel does not chase the extraordinary. Instead, it records one man's wavering and perseverance amid the currents of his era, family responsibilities, and personal fate. Even after dust has settled over those seemingly ordinary days, a light still shines.
