中国西南的崇山峻岭中散布着很多大大小小的山谷，当地人称为"坝子"，玫瑰坝便是其中之一。这里交通不便，坝子里的人很少走出去，坝子外的人很少走进来。山民们孤陋寡闻。除了土匪和贪官污吏偶尔骚扰，他们的生活单调平静。 1950年，革命的大潮涌进了这个偏远的角落，使这里发生了翻天覆地的变化。

The magnificent mountains of southwestern China shelter many valleys of various sizes. Because travel on the rugged mountain paths was difficult, the villagers of Rose Valley seldom ventured out and visitors from the outside world were rare. Life was predictable and largely peaceful, for hundreds of years.

《玫瑰坝》61万多字，描写的就是这么一个偏僻山谷中发生的故事。主要线索是一个爱情故事。男主人公是乡社干部，女主人公却是地主分子。他们相恋的背景是一系列重大的历史事件：土改，镇反，三反五反，合作化，反右，大跃进，大饥荒，社教，文化大革命。他们一个是革命者，一个是革命的对象。一个是理想主义者，想要建造一个人间的天堂；一个是现实主义者，只祈求平平安安地过日子。一个信仰西方传来的革命理论，一个恪守中国固有的古老传统。一个迷信理念和逻辑，行动狂热；一个依赖直觉和常识，办事冷静。于是，他们的爱就变得非常复杂，非常曲折，非常困难。当政治运动到来的时候，他们又身不由己地成为"运动员"，在惊涛骇浪中挣扎沉浮。

On October 1, 1949, the victorious Chinese Communist Party declares a new republic and the start of a new era. The new government relentlessly unleashes one political campaign after another — Land Reform, Agricultural Collectivization, the Great Leap Forward, and many others, culminating in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of 1966. The remoteness of Rose Valley provides no insulation from the deliberate pervasiveness of the continuous Revolution, so each campaign washes over the inhabitants and threatens to drown them.

除了这条爱情主线之外，还有几条次要的线索。这些长长短短的线索交织在一起，全景式地描绘了玫瑰坝这么一个很小的山乡，并折射出了那个年代里的整个中国。

The modern turmoil of Rose Valley is the backdrop for a love story between Feng Dongming and Chen Sufen. Dongming is a zealous revolutionary, assigned by the Communist Party to lead the village. Sufen is widowed by the Revolution when her husband is executed for the crime of being a landowner; her sole inheritance is being permanently branded as an enemy of the people. In a country divided into revolutionaries and class enemies, their love is ill-fated from the start. Though Rose Valley is small and remote, the story of Dongming and Sufen is the story of the generation that built the New China.