This book describes the family story of three generations of daughters over the past century, starting from the grandmother to the mother, and then to the daughter. They lived overlapping lives, but each follows a different life path in different eras with different main themes. As time flies and life rushes by, they look back on the past and document their lives. The story travels from a rural village in Northeast China to an overcrowded modernized metropolis. It unfolds against a backdrop of invasion and occupation, liberation, collectivization and famine, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and the emergence of China as an industrial power. Ultimately it tells how three young women each found ways to pursue their unconventional dreams in a traditional culture rocked by a century of enormous changes.