Shanghai has been exposed to a great deal of outside influences throughout its history. This novel features two stories about common city dwellers living in its alleyways from the 1980s to the 1990s.

The first story follows a family through three generations from the perspective of a character only known as “Black Bug.” Sharp-tongued, but soft-hearted, Black Bug’s grandmother takes care of the family. When Black Bug is young, his father wants to divorce his mother. As he grows older, his grandmother is hospitalized under intensive care due to a serious illness. Later, the family grieves the death of his grandmother. Black Bug then begins to comprehend the love within his family despite their gruff nature at times.

In the second story, Xiaoyu has a good job and a handsome boyfriend. She decides to rent a small room on Jiqing Li, a typical Shanghai alleyway, desiring to live a truly elegant city life. Within Xiaoyu’s apartment building, it’s difficult to avoid the life of her neighbors. She finally moves out of Jiqing Li realizing that life isn’t so elegant there. The residents have problems like everyone else, and put on a façade in an attempt to hide them.

Behind these stories is the gap between the city and countryside, the legacy of the political upheavals of the past, and the price that has come with new found prosperity. These people who resided in the stone gate houses represented the rapidly changing dynamics of the Shanghai metropolis.