After the defeat of Japan in World War II, China is plunged into a civil war between Communist and Nationalist forces. The old and respected Manchurian House of Yang is toppled in the chaos, and seventeen-year-old Baba, the Yangs' fourth and most audacious son, is forced to leave Manchuria and his family behind.

He journeys south on blistered feet, plagued by constant hunger. As the Communists overrun the crumbling Nationalist army, suspicion and paranoia become the norm, and Baba must outrun the tide of silence and betrayal engulfing the countryside.

From Beiping, the ancient capital, to the great Yellow and Yangtze Rivers, on to splendid, decadent Shanghai, he is swept up in a desperate exodus fleeing the Communist takeover, witnessing examples of rare courage and generosity as well as incidents of monstrous connivance and greed. When the southern provinces fall to the Communists, Baba is forced to abandon the mainland for the island of Taiwan.