In the 1980s countryside, at the Chen family wedding, the new bride Shen Xiuyun is made to play a donkey, ridden by her husband to circle and grind down her temper. After marriage, her mother-in-law Liang Guifen forces her to feed the donkey, bars her from the dining table, and demands her dowry, but Xiuyun investigates and takes back stolen money and cloth. When her mother-in-law cuts off food and dumps meals, Xiuyun pries open the cabinet for rice, pours pig feed on her, gets people to divide the family household, and repairs the millstone to open a tofu workshop. Her mother-in-law blackmails by blocking electricity, causes a fire in the shed with private wiring, and sells a pig to pay for damages. Her husband confesses his wrongdoing in public, and her mother-in-law gathers money to pay off debts and apologize. Xiuyun insists on living separately, continues to pay her elder support money, and lets her mother-in-law eat at the same table.