In a year of famine, Shen Maidong takes the place of her cousin to marry the lame hunter Gu Chenshan. Before the wedding ceremony, she exposes the Shen family's scandal of selling one daughter twice right in front of everyone. After marrying into the Gu family, her parents-in-law and brother-in-law make things difficult for them in every possible way. On their wedding night, the two of them are swept out the door, allotted only a leaky dilapidated house, an old broken pot, and half a bag of brown rice. In the desperate situation, Shen Maidong discovers the Gu family's ancestral back-mountain map in the corner of the wall, with the four hidden characters "entering the mountain in a famine year" on it. She persuades Gu Chenshan to drag his disabled leg into the mountain to find a way out, and the couple cooperates to find water sources, wild vegetables, and prey, carving out a path of survival in the desperate situation.