Early 1980s, east end of town.
The Li family pressures her to marry, the Wang family schemes, and the Zhang family's daughter is climbing over the wall.
Xiulan refuses to marry. She takes Grandma's sewing machine and goes from selling at the market to working in a garment factory.
Her mother throws a fit, her father sighs, her little brother steals money, and the competitor across the street resorts to dirty tricks.
A family's bittersweet troubles, a whole street in an uproar.
Whose cooking pot doesn't have soot at the bottom? Whose life isn't a mess?
In the end, everyone has a sky of their own, and everyone lives their own life.
