First published in 1947, Cold Nights is set in Chungking at the end of World War II. It describes the frustration of incompatible relationships among mother, son, and daughter-in-law as they deteriorate amidst the social weariness and ennui which pervaded China in the 1940s. Victimized by circumstances and by themselves, they are average people seeking average lives; their plight is shared with the rest of humanity and is depicted with compassion tempered with unflinching realism.