In this short scene, Shmoop introduces us to the protagonist of the novel, a young man named Shuhe, who is the son of the village chief. Shuhe's a village boy who has been orphaned by his father's death. His father was a village chief who died when Shuhe was a child, and Shuhe has been raised by his mother, a villager who was forced to flee her village when her husband died. He has been educated in the town of Inilim, but he wishes to return to his village to help his father, who has not been home for a long time. He asks Shuhe to come with him to the town to help him find a girl to marry, but Shuhe refuses, saying that he loves Shuhe more than anything else in the world. He tells Shuhe that his father is still waiting for him at home, at the bottom of a cliff.