美国中部堪萨斯州的曼哈顿小城，一下子来了许多中国留学生，中国人聚居在一起，就构成了"中国村"。不远万里、跨越大洋，落脚于异国的土地，留学生们遭遇着生存境遇的突变、异质文化的冲击，村落的亲和力和凝聚力一天天动摇，从而演绎出了"相聚——冲突——离散"的悲情三部曲。小说着力描写了"中国村"里四个家庭的悲欢离合。苛月与老熊这一家先从加拿大来到了曼哈顿，随后他们接来了陆一鸣的太太高洋和建法的太太安怡，一段时间后仁奇也回国娶来了太太。四个家庭在一起，相互依靠、相互帮助。可"问题"还是来了：建法因长时间拿不到学位、找不到工作，心灰意懒、相互帮助。竞皈依了宗教，失望中的安怡只好与他分居；一鸣在极为沉重的学业和工作压力下，情感麻木甚至扭曲，以致妻子高洋投入了美国小伙儿萨姆的怀抱；仁奇欢天喜地从国内娶回一个美丽的太太，刚刚度完蜜月，太太就跟有钱人跑了；倒是苛月与老熊恩恩爱爱，可是"中国村"里的同胞们老是来"叨扰"他们，说三道四、评长论短，他们忍受不了这种自私和偏狭，毅然再度迁徙。在小说的尾声，四个家庭全部离开了曼哈顿，"中国村"不复存在。( Suddenly, a lot of Chinese overseas students came to the Manhattan, a small city of Kansas in the middle of the United States of America. Chinese people gathered together and formed the "Chinese Village". They came to Manhattan from far away across the Pacific to settle on the land of a foreign country. These Chinese overseas students were suffering from sudden changes of living conditions and impact of different cultures. The affinity and cohesion of the village are weakened day by day, demonstrating the sad trilogy of "gathering - conflict - departure". The novel focuses on depiction of sadness, happiness, departure and reunion of four families in the "Chinese Village". Keyue and the Xiong's came to Manhattan from Canada and then they brought Gao Yang, wife of Lu Yiming and Anyi, the wife of Jianfa. Renqi also came to Manhattan with his wife a while after. Four families lived together to help each other. However, problems still existed: Jianfa was depressed and helped each other since he could not get his academic degree to find a job; he finally was converted to the religion; Anyi had to separate from him with disappointment; under extremely huge academic and working pressure, Yiming's emotion was numb and even twisted, forcing his wife Gao Yang to marry Sam, a young American guy; Ren Qi married a beautiful women from China with great joy; however, after the honeymoon, his wife went away with a wealthy man; on the contrary, Keyue and old Xiong were living a romantic life. However, their friends in the Chinese Village always came to bother them and complaint a lot. They could no longer withstand their selfishness and provinciality, so they determined to migrate again. At the end of the story, all four families left Manhattan and the Chinese Village no longer existed. )