The fateful story begins with Nuannuan, the youthful villager called home from the city to care for her mother. Upon her return, Nuannuan forges ahead with plans to invigorate the rural village with new enterprises and business. As the sublime image of a woman in the eyes of the village men, village Chief Zhan Shideng plans to marry Nuannuan to his younger brother, however, her refusal and subsequent elopement with the desperately poor young man Kuang Kaitian brings on the full wrath of the rampant chief. Worldly, resilient and spirited, Nuannuan must contend with those that transpire around her as she marches on to the beat of her own drum. A tragic tale not without warmth, the author provides unique perspectives on rural life in China, at once scratching into the surface layers of the monumental changes brought by modernity, and then taking us deep into the core structure of a village governed by stiff tradition and the ardours of change.