The poet travels from her home in the United States to her ancestral village in Shanxi province to bury the ashes of her paternal grandparents in a ritual lasting several days. The narrative arc of the story movingly explores death and life, a multi-branched and multi-generational clan, and ancient and modern belief systems, as it moves toward a tragic climax. First Mountain is Zhang Er's third book to be published by Zephyr Press, and includes an introduction about the collaborative process between Zhang Er and Joseph Donahue to render the book into English.