set in China, a young student who witnesses her scientist father's execution during the cultural revolution despairs of humanity, our cruelty to each other and our exploitation of our environment 
 she is sent to work at Red Coast, a radio astronomy/satellite monitoring station in 1970's 
 moving forward 30 years, a nano-technologist is seconded by authorities investigating a spate of suicides among leading scientists 
 he also discovers and begins playing an immersive game that follows iterations of a civilisation on a world with unstable environment due to interactions of its three suns 
 all these things are linked (view spoiler)[ to a real alien trisolaran civilisation 
 Ye Wenjie has sent detailed messages to this civilisation inviting them to take over the stable utopia that is earth 
 the 3 Body game is part of a recruitment drive by a human group, led by Ye Wenjie, who are aware of the alien plans to travel to earth and welcome them (either as potential 'gods' to our species, or to eliminate us) 
 the scientists are being influenced by aliens and their collaborators to ensure there is no further scientific progress here over the next 400 years until the fleet arrives, influencing the results of fundamental experiments to prevent discovery and bring populace to distrust science 
 (hide spoiler)] 
 characters are reasonably well developed, and story is full of scientific twists and speculations