In a cave high in the ageless mountains of China's desolate interior, an ancient funeral singer awaits the end. From his deathbed he gives voice to the generations of villagers to whom he devoted his life's work, and four all-too-human souls whose struggles defined an era.

A soldier, a peasant, a revolutionary and a politician. When revolt and reform take hold of the wartorn plains, all play their debased roles in the mythic cycle of avarice, vengeance and suffering.

As his four tragedies interweave, the cracked lips of the dying sage conjure a stark vision: a retelling of the forging of the People's Republic - from turbulent birth to absurd reversal - whispered from its uncharted margins.