Hsi brings the reader visions of flourishing plains replete with roaming livestock-horses, cattle, camels, sheep, and goats-and tells of how changing times gradually eroded the might of the ancient tribe, once the scourge of the Chinese Empire.
在這裡游牧的大匈奴民族才是主體，讀者透過席慕蓉的眼睛，看到在那一塊水草豐美、五畜興旺（馬、牛、駱駝、羊、山羊）的草原上，古稱「匈奴」的民族經由朝代移轉，時光嬗變，如何從一個偉大的蒙古帝國，長年與中華帝國爭戰，最後一點一滴的式微。