Most readers will have at least a sketchy understanding of the story that followed: Bo Yang was thrown into jail on charges of "stirring up trouble between the government and the people." For nearly ten years, people weren't sure if the was dead or alive, and Taiwan's society was that much more hushed without him. Yet the people's passion for freedom and democracy had not been extinguished.
接下來的故事許多讀者大概都略有所知，柏楊以「挑撥政府和人民之間的感情」入獄，將近十年生死未卜，台灣的社會更為沉寂，但人們對自由、民主的熱情並未灰燼。