In the 1970s, I Used Embroidery to Turn the Whole Village Upside Down

In the frost season of 1977, in Zhao Village in northern Jiangsu, Su Qinghe gives birth to two daughters in quick succession. Her husband's family, who favor boys, joins forces with the clan to scheme against her, planning to send her three-year-old younger daughter away to be raised by another family in exchange for grain.

Her cowardly husband looks on coldly as she is driven out of the main house and forced to live with her children in an abandoned woodshed that lets in the wind from every side. At her lowest point, she relies on the authentic Suzhou embroidery skills passed down by her grandmother. She breaks the village's old rule that women can only earn work points on the production team to survive, and secures a long-term purchase contract with the supply and marketing cooperative through her exquisite embroidery.

Her vicious mother-in-law repeatedly comes by to scheme for her money. Wang Banxian, a wandering charlatan, tries to manipulate her finances with superstitious rumors, while jealous women from the clan secretly copy her work and sell shoddy embroidery to steal her customers. Armed with the law, Su Qinghe makes an honest living, one stitch at a time. She not only raises her two daughters, but also leads a group of poor women in the village to build stable livelihoods through embroidery, finally breaking free of the shackles placed on women in the old era.