Meihua spends her whole life searching the sea of suffering for hope that sweetness will come, only to be repeatedly held down by fate. At six, she longs to go to school, but can only shoulder farm tools and work in the fields. At sixteen, forced to raise the bride price for her older brother, she marries Ah Hua, a man she doesn't love. Fortunately, warmth gradually grows between them after marriage. But before the pain of miscarrying and losing her second son in her twenties can fade, she suffers the devastating loss of her second older brother in her thirties. At forty, just when she thinks she can finally make it through, the terrible news of her husband's death strikes. She has only just begun to hope that her son will grow up, when she discovers he has squandered the family fortune. At fifty, all she can do is clutch a crumpled pay slip in a hospital corridor. Gazing out the window at families reunited, she finally understands, dazed: she has struggled with all her might to get over one hardship after another, but life has never offered her sweetness, only suffering in a different form.
