Shen Xiulian, the Woman from Gouzi Village

In the third year after twenty-six-year-old Shen Xiulian married into Liushugou, her husband, Zhao Dazhu, fell off a cliff and was left paralyzed. The ravines of the northwest are desperately poor, and the village is full of bachelors. Xiulian has to support her paralyzed husband and young daughter, but wherever she goes, people keep their eyes on her: borrowing grain, grinding flour, fetching water, going to market. There’s always someone trying to take advantage of her. Her mother-in-law scolds her for being unfaithful, and her husband suspects her of having an affair, but who will help her shoulder the burden of this broken family? Then Lin Yuanshan, a teacher sent to the countryside, arrives in Liushugou and enters Xiulian’s battered life...