The novel tells the story of six generations of the Li family over the course of nearly a century and a half, a legendary saga. The protagonists of the Li family in various historical stages of the book are searching for their own identity and the position of the family on the road of life. Sometimes they seize opportunities and create temporary brilliance for the benefit and glory of the family, while at other times they submit to fate and follow the tide of history, content to live ordinary lives like common people. In 1832 the second brother of the Li family of LiJiaGu village in Pingdu, Shandong, migrated to Northeast China, beyond the Great Wall, to escape the drought, locusts, and famine destroying the land that had been his family's home for more than six centuries. Li Tairen took his wife, baby son, and retainers on a thousand-mile journey by land and sea, and then settled and established the "Eight Fields" (ba tian) that became the foundation of the family's position and prosperity ... for a while. Six generations - Tai, Ping, Wen, Zhen, Yao, and Guang - experienced success, wealth, power, and the loss of all those things. They came to know poverty, exile, confinement, and no end of political instability. This book tells how they struggled over nearly 200 years, how they survived, where life carried them, and when and how it carried them back. It also gives us a fascinating view of family life under five Qing emperors, the Republic of China, the Japanese occupation, and the Peoples' Republic.