The main topic of this careful study involves a special genre in Chinese literature pertaining to family history and personal memoirs. Focusing on five generations of extraordinary women in the Family of Yu Yue (1821–1907), a respected scholar of Evidential Studies in the late Qing dynasty, Huntington artfully illustrates in this book how emotions and intimate relationships were conveyed amongst Chinese gentry families during the volatile period of the late 19th to early 20th century. The book begins with the death of Yu's wife in 1879, upon which he initiated a family tradition that commemorated love and mourned for loss through writings. The tradition expanded in the following generations to include daughters, granddaughters, daughters-in-law and nieces who perished too young to enjoy a fulfilling life. The commemorative writing by Yu and his descendants also celebrated works by the women they memorialize who had demonstrated their talents in poetry, prose, calligraphy, embroidery and painting. Although the works by these women were often in fragments, and some of which had to be recreated from destruction, Yu and his male descendants painstakingly collected them, annotated them and reflected on them as they grieved for the passing of their loved ones. These commemorative writings gained a wide audience within China and from as far as Japan and Germany. As a result, the distinctive personalities and unique life stories of these women and men in the Yu family were documented, their voices, happiness and sorrows preserved.

Piecing together a moving narrative of remembrance that spans five generations, Huntington offers a nuanced reading of the writings produced by Yu and his family. She contextualizes each work discussed in this book with details of the lives of the protagonists. She also provides line-for-line translations with thoughtful insights to elucidate meanings embedded in the original Chinese texts. Following the chronology of the five generations, Huntington opens the book with a chapter depicting the loving relationship between Yu and his wife. Surviving his wife by almost three decades, Yu produced copious writings dedicated to her, including mournful poems at each of her birthdays after her death. Chapter two tells the stories about Yu's children, including a son who was plagued by mental illness, a daughter who was brilliant but short lived, and a precocious daughter-in-law whose death before the consummation of her marriage was mysteriously linked to the Taiping Rebellion. Outliving most of his children, Yu sorrowfully took on the tasks of writing obituaries for his own children as well as their spouses (later for some of his grandchildren too.) Chapter three demonstrates how the family tradition of reminiscence continued among Yu's grandchildren. Emulating the tributes to his grandmother, Yu's widowed grandson also composed elegiac poems for his deceased wife, whose artistic talent was appreciated by both her husband and her grandfather-in-law. Chapter four deals with a heart-breaking suicide of Yu's beloved granddaughter, who was remembered not only through writings by those who mourned her, but also through her own, as her poems, posthumously published, were perceived as modern examples of women's literature. The last chapter of the book chronicles lives of Yu's great grandchildren during the critical times in the early 20th century. The family tradition of reminiscence was carried on by Yu Pingbo (1900–1990), Yu Yue's great grandson and heir, who was like the elder Yu a renowned scholar in traditional Chinese literature, especially the Dream of the Red Chamber. Yu Pingbo's reminiscence, which was expressed in modern poetic form and illustrated with new artistic visions, did not commemorate specific individuals in the family, but rather, as Huntington pointed out, attempted “to reclaim the quotidian experience in the past” (p. 185).

Benefiting from Huntington's interpretations of the original text, the reader is privy to a subtle but profound world of emotions in Chinese literature, where open expressions about feelings, such as affection, longing, and remorse, were rare. Her study also invites the reader to survey ideas about marriage, womanhood, relational abuse, mental illness and death, from the perspectives of a Chinese gentry family at the cusp of the republican period when the traditional taboos were confronted in new discourses. The peculiar but candid stories unfolded in this book involve graves for teeth, suicidal notes, visits by ghosts and a garden in a crooked space. Instead of overwhelming readers with theoretical analyses, Huntington simply introduces key concepts in the beginning of the book, then encourages them to explore freely these stories. Although lengthy at times, this book remains engaging and thought-provoking. It is well suited for readers with interest in Chinese literature as well as in a broader scope of humanity.