In 1972, when Mao unleashes the "Cultural Revolution" upon China, Ling is nine. She lives in Wuhan, in a large apartment with her parents who are both doctors at the best public hospital in the city. Ling's mother is harsh, but her father, who gives her English lessons at night, is indulgent and loving. However, as the Cultural Revolution progresses, Ling's world changes.

Comrade Li, moves into their apartment, and takes over her father's study. At school, Ling becomes the target of bullies, because she is from a "bourgeois" family and not from the working class. The Red Guard, led by Comrade Li, attacks her friends in the upstairs apartment. Ling's father is arrested and taken away; Ling and her mother must struggle just to survive.

In this rich autobiographical novel, Compestine authentically depicts the slow but inexorable deterioration of Ling'sworld, capturing the frightening milieu of a small courageous girl who tries to understand what is happening around her.