This epic saga chronicles the lives of several families in a remote corner of Northeast China across fifty pivotal years of the 20th century. It depicts the crushing impact of historical events, from Japanese occupation to the Cultural Revolution, on ordinary people. With incredible imagination and a distinctive narrative voice, it portrays the struggle for survival, defiance against injustice, and the search for identity amidst turbulent times.
Surrounded by a remorseless mother and seven sisters, each named in anticipation of his birth, a boy-child becomes the narrator of this story, presenting a generation of life in a rural Chinese community in twentieth century, populated by strong women and weak husbands, bandits and government bureaucrats, hen-murdering mid-wives and missionaries.