1970s setting, modern romance, adorable child, family favorite, building wealth, countryside
Seven-year-old Haitang is called a burden by her second uncle, then turns around and finds a hundred-jin grouper in a reef cave.
Her three older brothers brave the waves and haul it out together. The whole fishing village watches, green with envy!
On a poor island in the 1980s, her father is missing and her mother struggles to keep the family afloat.
Haitang learns from an old boatman how to read tidal channels, judge the water's color, and tell which way the wind is blowing. She leads her brothers in digging for mud crabs, trapping octopuses, and keeping watch during fishing season.
Just as they finally start getting fish on the table, greedy relatives show up to take their boat and fight over their home, even claiming they won't survive the next typhoon season.
But when a storm really does hit, all the villagers they once helped step forward to stand by them.
The three brothers protect their little sister, and she protects the whole family. Their courtyard grows warmer amid all the commotion, and their catches grow bigger and bigger.
But with the storm's eye drawing near, Haitang spots her missing father's boat tag on the exposed tidal flat, revealed by the rapidly receding tide...
