Life in Korea from the latter part of the nineteenth century to the end of the Second World War is described through the viewpoints and lives of several members of four generations of a prominent aristocratic family.
"[Buck's] zealous study has enabled her to five the vivid impressions of a 4,000-year-old-culture through the carefully drawn minor characters and much colorful detail about such things as burial and marriage rites, court etiquette and the tending of silkworms.
