The novella follows Ouyang Duanli, a strong-minded Shanghai woman who worked hard to support her and her husband's large family during the Cultural Revolution when they were attacked as "former bourgeois".

Kirkus Reviews praised the novella as having "the feel of a small epic yet never lapses into sentimentality or melodrama".

[1] Noting the author's social background before the Cultural Revolution, Rosemary Haddon felt Ouyang Duanli was Wang's persona and wrote that "driven by the proletarian standard, Wang Anyi has won a small victory in China's class struggle".

[2] Michael S. Duke, however, was highly critical of the novella for containing "all the major faults of Wang's writing: excessive wordiness, repetitiveness, unrealistic or stereotypical characterizations, overly abrupt changes in moral character, didacticism, and shallow moralizing".

[3] Aamer Hussein also noted the "insipid" approach but called Wang's examination of relationships "moving and perceptive" and the novellas an "honest account of a woman's search".