In the twelfth lunar month of 1960, during a famine in the Taihang Mountains, Mu Shouyi is pressured by her fiancé and stepsister to break off their engagement and surrender her food rations. Suddenly coming to her senses, she exposes their secret affair in front of everyone, takes back her food, and tears up the marriage contract. She moves into an old house deep in the mountains and adopts three stray dogs, training them into a hunting dog team. There, she grows close to Wu Jianyang, the village group leader. Together, they hunt bears and repeatedly bring home bountiful harvests, eventually earning Mu Shouyi the position of hunting team captain. When her stepsister and her companions get into trouble while hunting illegally and try to shift the blame onto others, Mu Shouyi exposes their lies with evidence and leads the villagers in practicing responsible, scientific hunting to survive the famine. In the end, she and Wu Jianyang marry and begin a happy life together.