In 1971, like millions of other young city dwellers in China, the narrator and his friend Luo are sent to a remote mountain near Tibet, where they will be "raised" by the local peasants. They have only three chances in a thousand of ever returning to their birthplace. In a nearby village, another young city dweller carefully hides a suitcase full of forbidden books: Balzac, Flaubert, Hugo, Kipling, Emily Brontë, Rousseau, Dostoyevsky... Thanks to these literary treasures, the attractive little dressmaker, coveted by so many, will never be the same. This powerful story, written with an impressively truthful accent, not only immerses us in communist China but also tells a beautiful tale of friendship and love, enveloped in the magic of literature.