The author of this book calls Taiwan's former President Lee Teng-hui a "living contradiction," both the "agent and the subject of history" and a "flamboyant mystery" in the history of Taiwan.

"Like the trailblazers of every new nation, Lee Teng-hui has left a record in Taiwan history that will be both an aspiration and a reproach to subsequent generations," Henry Tsai says in the epilogue. This book is more than a biography, because it provides an in-depth understanding of the Taiwanese people's quest for identity, and the former president has remained a critical point in that quest. The author provides rich personal details, but also praises and criticism of Lee's political life. Readers will understand after reading this book why the main political parties in Taiwan have been fighting among themselves for decades, and what drives the Taiwanese to demand a nation of their own, free of foreign threats and interference. Henry Tsai says that Taiwanese bear in their hearts a feeling of rebelliousness because the island has been conquered by foreigners several times over the past few centuries, and because they have never quite realized total independence and a separate identity and sovereignty. Two of the highest points in Lee's presidency were when he visited Cornell University, where he earned a PhD in agriculture, in 1995, and when he called for a "special state-to-state" relationship across the Taiwan Strait in 1999. Both events provoked some of the mainland's strongest verbal attacks on Taiwan and its leader.

As a child, Lee was first educated by Japanese teachers during Japan's occupation of Taiwan, and his education had a deep impact on him for the rest of his life. But at an early age, the author says that Lee understood the meanings of educational discrimination, political inequality and social injustice. He was admitted in 1938 to the government-sponsored Tamsui Middle School, whose students were mostly children from rich families. It was at that school that the young man first began to learn about Christianity, which resulted in his conversion in 1961 to a religion that is a minority in a primarily Buddhist country. The author says that Christianity provided major support for the future president after the death of his mother-in-law and in the later part of his life after he entered politics.

But the young Lee lived in want and fear, because Taiwan at that time was under martial law and the iron-fisted Kuomintang government. His political instincts drove him to join the KMT party in 1970 after filling out forms and providing a brief biography of himself. The author says Lee never expressed any doubt about joining the KMT, a decision that propelled him to the highest political leadership in the government later on. Two years after becoming a KMT member he was appointed a cabinet minister, which was his first taste of power. But it was a time of turmoil, because Taiwan had just been ousted from its seat in the UN General Assembly and replaced by the mainland. Lee's understanding of agriculture contributed significantly to a law called the "Agricultural Development Act," adopted by the Legislative Yuan in September 1973, and signed by Premier Chiang Ching-kuo. Foreign agricultural and economic critics questioned the miraculous socio-economic development of Taiwan during the years Lee first entered the government. President Chiang Kai-shek passed away in April, 1975, triggering a series of political events and changes that brought many new faces into the government. One of them was Lee, who was picked to become the mayor of Taipei in June 1978, at the age of 55. From there on, the climb to the presidency was written like a script. In 1978, Taiwan was jolted by US President Jimmy Carter's decision to switch US diplomatic ties from Taipei to Beijing, a few years after Taiwan lost its UN seat. Lee became governor of Taiwan and vice president, holding the posts from 1981 to 1987. In January, 1988, President Chiang Ching-kuo died and was succeeded by Lee as the seventh president. He was re-elected in 1996 in the first democratically held elections in Taiwan, just days after China fired missiles in the Taiwan Strait to intimidate Taiwanese people into rejecting a man who advocated a separate identity and destiny from that of the mainland, and who consolidated democracy for the island nation.

Since 2000, after he left the presidency, Lee has not confined himself to retirement. Henry Tsai says the former president has remained involved in the quest for a Taiwanese identity. "However, Lee has his limits and his dream of establishing an independent, sovereign Taiwan state separate from China will depend upon so many variables, including those in the hands of Chinese leaders and American policy makers," the author says.