The central figure of the work is Wu Sunfu, a national industrial capitalist. Through the description of his struggle and failure to revitalize the national industry, the writer truly reproduces the bleak prospect of China's national bourgeoisie in the early 1930s, and vividly proves that China has not taken the capitalist road, but has become more colonial.
The novel begins with Mr. Wu's arrival in Shanghai from the countryside, his illness and death, and the mourning of the Wu government. This led to leading figures such as Wu Sunfu, Zhao, Tu Zhuzhai and other industrial and financial giants. Then it is divided into two clues: the main clue and the auxiliary clue. The main line is the contradiction between Wu Sunfu and Zhao: Wu Sunfu is ambitious and wants to develop national industries based on trust companies. Although he merged eight small and medium-sized factories and realized the "ambitious plan", he was excluded and controlled by Zhao, a comprador financial capitalist supported by the American consortium. Coupled with the warlord melee, rural bankruptcy; Freight stopped, sales fell sharply and finally went bankrupt. The second line is the contradiction between Wu Sunfu and the workers and peasants. In order to get rid of the predicament, Wu Sunfu stepped up the oppression of workers and intensified the contradiction with them.
The work vividly describes the peasant riots and workers' strikes in Shuangqiao Town, Wu Sunfu's hometown, and Wu Sunfu's dark psychology towards the workers' and peasants' movement. In addition to the main line and auxiliary line, the works also extend the brushwork to all aspects of life, thus becoming the ornament of this "industrial finance" metropolis.
His works are magnificent in structure, numerous in characters and vigorous in brushwork, which is a rare masterpiece in the history of modern literature in China.