For ten years, Chen Xiuyun has worked the sewing machine by day and smoked cured meat by night, until the salt has cracked the skin of her fingers. Yet the fattiest cured pork and the most fragrant sausages are taken away every year by her younger brother-in-law, who arrives with a handcart. Her husband remains silent, while her mother-in-law insists that this is what she should do. Even the money their own son spent three years saving by collecting scrap metal for a bicycle was secretly stolen by her husband to buy expensive wedding gifts for his younger brother. This year, she is done preparing anything for them. There is only half a crock of sweet potatoes left. After enduring ten years of mistreatment, she has finally decided that she will endure no more.