In Bengbu, a group of teenagers sent down to work in the countryside goes through an unexpected experience on the way there which shows just how unprepared they are for the adult world into which they've been pushed. In Backstage, a group of performers waste away their youth in an underfunded, lackluster performing arts troupe. In Sisters, one promising young woman after another is transformed by marriage from the apple of housewife.
《憂傷的年代》一書中，她寫過去下鄉的中轉地──〈蚌埠〉，如何見證了她們還沒準備好的年少，就給推進人生之中；〈文工團〉，一個處境四處皆漏的文工團，如何磨滅了團員的青春年華；農村裡尊貴的〈姊妹們〉，如何在婚姻中變成一個個粗鄙的媳婦。