Love on the Wild Ridge

After a marriage swap, lively and free-spirited Zhao Fang marries Chen Jun, a reserved man, in her elder brother’s place.

She keeps her distance from him after the wedding, but an accident leaves her pregnant with his child. She maintains the appearance of a respectable household, while still carrying a torch for her first love.

The hills and woods hold the memories of the two of them growing close and cherishing each other. Social conventions and village gossip may bind her with the chains of respectability, but they cannot lock away her burning heart.

Gentle and long-suffering Chen Guilian is also married into the Zhao family against her will. She is careful in everything and treats her husband, Zhao Jianguo, with sincere affection, hoping for a peaceful life together.

But their newlywed tenderness is interrupted in public by his domineering mother-in-law, leaving Zhao Jianguo with deep psychological scars. From then on, though they live side by side, they are strangers to each other. He loves his wife deeply and is consumed with guilt, but is no longer able to act on that love.

She has nowhere to voice her grievances and is unfairly branded as “unable to have children,” suffering through the scorn of those around her.

A marriage swap in the loess hills binds two generations and shatters countless ordinary bonds. This is the everyday fate of people whose lives are not their own to choose.