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Penned by an ethnic Tibetan living in China, Red Poppies chronicles the life of Young Master, the "idiot" son of a wealthy Maiqi clan in 1930s pre-occupation Tibet. Before his sage-like eyes, Young Master's world turns from one of pleasantry and peace to one where poppies, vital to the heroin market, are traded for the tools of warfare. The first of a planned trilogy, Red Poppies is a sweeping, cinematic story that brings Tibet to life for all eyes to see.

In a country where patriarchal favoritism and the primacy of sons survived multiple revolutions and an ideological earthquake, this epic novel is first and foremost about women, with the female body serving as the book’s central metaphor. The protagonist, Mother, is born in 1900 and married at seventeen into the Shangguan family. She has nine children, only one of whom is a boy—the narrator of the book. A spoiled and ineffectual child, he stands in stark contrast to his eight strong and forceful female siblings.

The farmers of Paradise County have been leading a hardscrabble life unchanged for generations. The Communist government has encouraged them to plant garlic, but selling the crop is not as simple as they believed. Warehouses fill up, taxes skyrocket, and government officials maltreat even those who have traveled for days to sell their harvest. A surplus on the garlic market ensues, and the farmers must watch in horror as their crops wither and rot in the fields. Families are destroyed by the random imprisonment of young and old for supposed crimes against the state. Meanwhile, a blind minstrel incites the masses to take the law into their own hands....