A year before the story begins, Tao watched as Communist Party police arrested his father, Sheng. What his mother Kai Ying and grandfather Wei have not told him is that the Party suspected Sheng of writing a letter critical of the government during its Hundred Flowers Campaign. After his arrest, they sent Sheng to a labor camp 1,000 miles away in the city of Luoyang. The family has not heard from him in six months.
Now in the present, in July of 1958, Tao climbs the kapok tree in the courtyard of his family’s villa. He misses Sheng, and a dream told Tao to climb the tree and look for his father on the peaks of distant White Cloud Mountain. But near the top of the tree, he loses his grip and falls 30 feet to the ground below. When Wei and Kai Ying bring Tao to the hospital, Kai Ying notices a pregnant teenager (Suyin) staring at her across the waiting room. Suyin has been living on the streets since her family discovered her pregnancy and kicked her out.
When Tao returns home after several weeks in the hospital, the family struggles to find a sense of normalcy. Tao anxiously waits for his cast to come off, while Kai Ying worries about Sheng and Tao. And Wei confronts his guilt over the fact that he wrote the letter for which Sheng was arrested—the authorities confused father and son because they share the same name.
On the eve of the Autumn Moon Festival, Suyin catches a glimpse of Kai Ying at the market. Taking it as a good omen for her and her baby, she quietly follows Kai Ying home. Later that day, the cast comes off Tao’s leg, though it will take time and effort for him to recover his strength and for his limp to go away. The day after the Moon Festival, Suyin bursts into the courtyard in labor. Kai Ying and Wei carry her inside, where she delivers a baby girl. Kai Ying decides to nurse Suyin back to health and secretly names the baby Meizhen.
Soon after the Festival, Tao returns to school and finds that everything has changed since his injury. His friend Little Shen has taken his former spot as second student, and the other children tease Tao about his limp. When class bully Lai Hing tells everyone that Sheng was arrested because he was a counterrevolutionary, Tao confronts Kai Ying and Wei. Realizing that it’s time to take responsibility, Wei confesses that he wrote the letter. Kai Ying and Tao feel betrayed by Wei’s confession, but Kai Ying tries to pretend that things are normal.
Throughout the month of October, Wei becomes more and more anguished. He frequently leaves the house for long, restless walks. Finally, he decides to try to make things right by traveling to Luoyang to check on Sheng. Although he hasn’t left the city in 25 years and has barely left his house in the last decade, he boards a northbound train on the last day of October for the days-long trip. On the way, a young man named Tian befriends and guides Wei, a lucky turn of events since Wei is unprepared for the journey. Tian is traveling to Luoyang because he used to love a young woman named Ai-li, but she abandoned him for the Communist Party after she became deeply invested in its ideology. As Tian helps Wei navigate the Communist Party bureaucracy in his attempt to visit Sheng, he finally makes peace with his own past.
Meanwhile, back at home in Guangzhou, Suyin recovers her strength and worries that Kai Ying will kick her out. She cannot go home; she became pregnant after her stepfather raped her and she cannot face her family again. But she becomes an integral part of the family during the weeks Wei is away, taking on the role of an older sister to Tao and becoming Kai Ying’s valued helper and then her full-fledged herbalist’s apprentice.
Finally, Wei learns that Sheng is alive and receives permission to visit him. Wei begs for Sheng’s forgiveness for writing the letter, for letting Sheng take the blame, and for the distance that has characterized much of their relationship. But Sheng tells his father that he doesn’t need to apologize for speaking the truth. Instead, he’s proud that Wei finally took a stand for his beliefs, something that has always come more naturally to Sheng. Then, their too-brief visit ends. With a letter from Sheng for Kai Ying safe in his pocket, Wei returns to Kai Ying and Tao, who welcome him with forgiveness and open arms.
