In the 1970s, in Linjiatun at the foot of the Greater Khingan Mountains, eighteen-year-old orphan Lin Xiaoman inherits her grandfather’s mountain-foraging skills. She makes a living by identifying wild ginseng, lingzhi mushrooms, pine nuts, and other local specialties. When famine strikes the villages below, she shares her mountain harvest with her neighbors and teaches the villagers how to recognize wild produce and follow the rules of the forest. She and Gu Changlin, a hunter from the neighboring village, go from working together to falling in love, facing crises like black bear attacks, being trapped by snowstorms, and greedy merchants driving down their prices. Through her perseverance in foraging in every season, she turns the mountain’s bounty into a reliable source of income for the villagers and finds a simple but heartwarming happiness of her own. Highlights include an immersive depiction of 1970s foraging in the Changbai Mountains and the heroine’s resilience as she uses her knowledge of the mountains to overcome hardship, revealing how people and nature give back to one another.
