Born in 1950 in a well know intellectual family in China, the author grew up and live through the turmoil of a series of political movements culminating in the Culture Revolution (1966-1976) when he was sent to hard labor in the hinder-land and impecunious mountains in Shanxi province where he learned the hard reality of Chinese peasants. Returning to Beijing three years later with a different perspective, he made friends with many with same world view and self-taught youth, including some died of tragic death and others got rich years later. From his own experience, the author painted a sketch in this book, with his keen eyes and succinct style of writing, his generation of "lost youth", how these "orphan youth" lived through the chaos, what they have learned, and how the lifelong friendship developed.