The second book in THE HOUSE OF EARTH trilogy, SONS is the saga of the three male heirs to the great fortune of Wang Lung. Set against the Chinese revolution, Buck weaves their story around the clash of ancient and modern ideas that threatens to tear the country apart.

Wang Lung's struggle as a poor peasant farmer in THE GOOD EARTH culminated with his rise to wealth and the eventual moral decay of a once honorable man. In turn, his three sons have now become the benefactors of the estate and each has his own reasons for wanting to sell the vast landholdings that their father took such pride in.

The eldest son has always enjoyed a life of leisure, spoiling his wife and children with conspicuous luxuries. The middle son was the cleverest and built a thriving merchant business in conjunction with marketing the family's large harvests. The youngest fled the House of Wang and joined the army to become a great general. He now has his sights on becoming a ruler. With three such disparate characters, it is inevitable that this power-hungry family will dissolve even further into quarreling factions.