On New Year's Eve in 1998, with heavy snow falling, the lonely and helpless Zhou Chunmiao huddles outside Song's Woodwork Shop, starving. She is discovered by the kindhearted Mr. and Mrs. Song. Her aunt arrives chasing Zhou Jianping and Zhou Jianjun, who have stolen steamed buns, and raises her hand to punish the children. During the struggle, the redwood box containing Chunmiao's mother's keepsakes falls into the snow. To give his little sister a chance at survival, her elder brother Zhou Jianping suppresses his heartbreak and makes the painful decision to entrust the young Chunmiao to the Song couple. He then leaves alone with his younger brother. On that snowy New Year's Eve, the three siblings are forced apart.