Du Yuqin, an eight-grade bench worker, raised her family alone after her husband died in the line of duty, only to be exploited by her brother-in-law Du Cheng's family. On a stormy night, she was driven out of her house and forced to marry Zhang the Butcher, who beat his wives. Huo Zhendong, an old acquaintance she had been separated from for twenty years, has now returned with capital to serve as the director of the Red Star Factory. He rescued Du Yuqin, who was at her wits' end, at a state-run restaurant, giving her the position of chief engineer and a home. Du Yuqin fought against her relatives' extortion and rumors in the factory. When foreign capital took the opportunity to impose a technological blockade in an attempt to swallow up the factory, Du Yuqin signed a military pledge and relied on her exquisite bench-working skills to manually grind high-precision valve cores, breaking the monopoly. Having weathered the storms, she shook off her suffering and lived to become a light of her own.