Zhang Xianliang

In 1980, Xu Jingshan, a wealthy Chinese-American businessman returns to China to find his son, Xu Lingjun, whom he had abandoned over 30 years earlier. Labeled a rightist because of his capitalist father, Lingjun has been forced to live as a humble herdsman on the grasslands. His bitter life has been transformed by a happy marriage to the wise and beautiful Xiuzhi, and more recently by his rehabilitation by the Party. When he goes to Beijing for their reunion, he discovers his father wants him to work for his chemical company in San Francisco. Lingjun tells the story of his life to his father, as he ponders his future.

A mining engineer acting as a technical translator is suspected of industrial espionage after sending an innocent telegram that is intercepted by a militant snoop. Placed under investigation and reassigned to a less sensitive department, but never informed of the reason for his demotion, he petitions to get his job back, sparking an increasingly obtuse series of Party meetings.