Hương is a writer who grows up in Hanoi during the Vietnam War. The conflict defines her childhood, depriving her of her parents for many years and killing her father. Consequently, she is largely raised by her mother’s mother, Diệu Lan, who calls her Guava and labors to ensure she has a good education and a strong sense of family history.

As an adolescent, Hương struggles to deal with the enormous challenges life throws at her, sometimes responding in vindictive and immature ways. However, thanks to guidance from her grandmother, other family members, and eventually Tâm, the man she will marry, as well as a voracious appetite for literature, she develops into a virtuous adult and a writer devoted to truth.

Though two characters contend for the titles of protagonist and narrator in The Mountains Sing, Hương has the strongest claim to both. The first and final chapters, told as they are after Diệu Lan’s death, make it clear that she is the true author of the story. Moreover, while Diệu Lan certainly grows over the course of her lifetime, her experiences figure into and support the greater development of Hương.