Chapters 1-120

A monk and a Daoist pick up a magic stone. Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai move in with their aristocratic relatives the Jias and become friends with their young cousin Jia Baoyu, famed for his precious jade, despite getting off to a rocky start. In a dream, Baoyu is shown the register of their destinies. One of his school friends and his friend’s sister die.

A new garden is built in honour of Baoyu’s sister Yuanchun, an Imperial concubine, and she orders that Baoyu, Baochai, Daiyu and their other cousins move in. The three become closer, attending parties, drinking and quarrelling. Baoyu and Daiyu develop a particularly tense and emotional relationship. Baoyu is soundly beaten by his father after a maid kills herself. Cousin Tanchun proposes a poetry club; the cousins hold successive poetry competitions and parties, in addition to the extravagant formal household celebrations.

Among the senior family members, Wang Xifeng and her husband Jia Lian have a violent domestic after he is caught in flagrante with a servant’s wife. After Xifeng has a miscarriage, Tanchun takes on running the household. Lian goes on to arrange a secret second wedding. Xifeng discovers this, and drives the second wife to suicide. Xifeng becomes increasingly concerned about the household finances.

Some more cousins and maids move into the Garden, which slowly becomes chaotic as maids fight and the cousins’ parties become more raucous. There are raids after a servants’ gambling ring is discovered and illicit objects are found, leading to the dismissal of some maids. The parties gradually become depleted and melancholy. Cousin Yingchun is married off, and Baochai’s brother Xue Pan marries a violent, manipulative woman.

Baoyu becomes depressed, and the senior household members decide to marry him to Baochai. Daiyu hears about this and is overwhelmed with grief, refusing to eat. When Baoyu’s precious jade disappears and he becomes imbecilic, the wedding is expedited, and Baoyu is tricked into thinking he is marrying Daiyu. Daiyu dies while the ceremony is underway, and Baoyu is devastated by her death and the deception. The garden is left abandoned and desolate, and is exorcised after spirits are sighted.

Xue Pan is sentenced to death for murder, and his wife accidentally kills herself trying to poison his maid. Baoyu’s father is impeached for corruption, and after various misdemeanours the household is raided by the secret police, leading to arrests, exiles and property confiscation. The confiscation and years of mismanagement leave the family penniless. Their reputation is ruined, although they do maintain some Imperial favour.

Baoyu and Baochai grow closer. Key household members die, Tanchun is married off and cousin Xichun becomes a nun. While the family is away at a funeral, the household is robbed. Baoyu relapses, only recovering when a monk brings his jade back. He has undergone a profound inner change after another spiritual departure, however, and although he studies hard and passes the civil service examinations, he disappears soon after, wandering off with the monk and Daoist.