Enchanted readers of Bette Bao Lord's memorable first "novel of China," Spring Moon, fell in love with its heroine and kept it on the bestseller lists for months. Now she returns to the cataclysmic atmosphere of modern China with a new story of friends and lovers caught up in the forces of history. In 1932, the year of the Japanese conquest of Manchuria, three young people form a passionate alliance: the brash Young Master of a once-great clan and his book-mate (a servant whose job is to shepherd an unruly pupil through school) befriend a prank-playing urchin, a grave-keeper's daughter disguised as a boy. Immediately and instinctively the three become "blood brothers," pledging to die together in defense of their in defense of their country. Throughout the years of revolution that follow, the three face the challenges of conflicting loyalties: to political ideals, to country, to family: to one's beloved, to one's friend, to oneself. As the three friends rise to prominence in their separate careers as a political leader, a writer and an actress, their story charts their personal progress - reluctant, brave and sometimes triumphant - through the storms of history.