The following summary of Pearl S. Buck's second novel: The Good Earth, will include: an introduction of the main characters, a description of those characters' personalities and physical appearances, a description of the setting, an explanation of the apparent conflict, and a brief plot summary.

Wang Lung, his old widowed father, O-Lan; Wang Lung's wife and a life long slave to the great house of Hwang, are the main characters.

Wang Lung is a painfully average farmer, shrouded in burnished earth hued swart skin blackened by the hot sun, eternally hung above the friable fields. A lacquered ebony braid adorns his bald head, spilling down his back. Wang Lung, teeming with pride seeks a servitude and passive wife to bear him many sons, to amass great wealth. His widowed Father remains nameless, and his presence serves solely to provide greater insight...