Amid the dust of a construction site, Zhang Aping coughs up blood as she hauls bags of cement, all to save enough money to buy her daughter, Li Xiaohui, a ticket to the college entrance examination. When Li Xiaohui scores an astonishing 745 points and becomes the province's top student, her village, steeped in son preference, erupts in outrage: "A girl could become the top student? She must have cheated!" Village rules are invoked, and her mother is forced to take the punishment in her place. Rumors cut like knives, but Li Xiaohui refuses to back down! She produces irrefutable evidence and humiliates her accusers. The school principal celebrates her achievement with drums and gongs, while city officials personally stand up for her, crushing the malicious accusations. But the biggest surprise comes at the banquet celebrating the top scholar: her father, the man who abandoned his wife and daughter to become a live-in son-in-law elsewhere, shows up to humiliate them! Witness how this impoverished mother and daughter rise from adversity to the top and write an inspiring legend of the college entrance examination!