The New York Times praised A Single Shard as being "deftly shaped" and "surprisingly moving", stating that the Newbery Medal would help expose the novel to an audience it would otherwise have not reached.

The potters of Ch'ulp'o, the local village, suddenly become famous for their celadon glaze, but Tree-ear has observed richer pickings in their rubbish dumps.

One day, Tree-ear goes into Min's yard, but since neither the old potter nor his throwing wheel are in sight, he decides to investigate the work left drying in the sun.

During this time, Tree-ear notices some odd behavior in another potter, Kang, who is as experienced as Min but more impatient.

One night, Tree-ear sneaks up to Kang's work shed and sees him carving out chrysanthemums on the side of a vase and then filling the holes with colored clay.

On the day that the royal emissary arrives, all the potters set up stalls filled with their work on the beach.

The potters who received extra attention before again begin working quickly to prepare new samples for the emissary.

Once again, Min works quickly to create two melon-shaped vases with intricate, inlaid flowers along the side.

When he reaches the city of Puyo, he goes up to a mountain cliff called the Rock of Falling Flowers.

When Tree-ear arrives in Puyo, he sees the familiar chrysanthemums and colors on a stall selling pottery.

Despite the incredulity of the emissary's assistant, Min is offered a commission and Tree-ear is given safe passage home on a ship.

Crane-man died a few days before when a farmer's cart broke the rotten bridge railing, causing him to fall into the cold water.

The ending of the story reveals that Tree-ear, or Hyung-pil, created the "Thousand Cranes Vase", which is the finest example of inlaid celadon pottery from in the twelfth century.