小说记述了一个发生在七十年代末陕西省延安市一个叫做杨家沟的小山庄里的故事。毛泽东领导的军队，在这里经过十三年后，力量不断发展壮大，最后武装推翻了中华民国政府，建立了中华人民共和国，所以就把延安称作"革命圣地"，让全国的百姓朝拜。自从一九四九年中华人民共和国成立以后，中共的高级领导人虽然没回过延安，但在文化大革命期间，无数的"知识青年"却被送到这里，目的是"扎根农村，建设延安"，但是，这些青年人来到这里后，都想法设法地返回了原来的城市，这种政治运动，对那里人们的生活、甚至他们自己都没有任何的改变，故事中的主人公就是其中的一个。故事通过他的经历，见证了在邓小平所推动的中国社会大改革时代中，不同阶层人物的思想意识和行为的变化、以及物质丰富后对人们精神和行为上所带来的冲击。 The novel retells a story that happened in a small village called Yangjiagou in Yan'an City, Shaanxi Province in the late 1970s. Occupied Yan'an for 13 years, the army led by Mao Zedong continued to grow in strength. In the end, it overthrew the Chinese National Government and established the People's Republic of China. Therefore, Yan'an was called the "Revolutionary Holy Land" for the people of the whole country to worship. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, although the senior leaders of the Chinese Communist Party have never returned to Yan'an, during the Cultural Revolution, many "educated youths" were sent here with the goal of "rooting in the countryside and building Yan'an". However--for many people, the revolutionary movement had failed to change their lives. The protagonist in this novel is one of these adolescents who wished to leave Yan'an despite all the efforts of their leaders to keep them there. Through his experience, the story has witnessed the changes in the ideology and behavior of people of different classes in the era of great social change promoted by Deng Xiaoping, as well as the impact on people's spirit and behaviors after material enrichment.
