In the autumn of 1990, after her husband died, Xu Chunyan was driven out by her husband's family and despised by her maternal family. Pregnant, she jumped into the river and was rescued by Chen Guangming, a fellow villager. To survive, she hid her pregnancy and went to the city to work as a waitress, falling in love with Zhang Chunsheng, only to be driven out of the delivery room by his family. Confining herself during postpartum recovery, Xu Chunyan refused to yield to fate, relying on making spicy baby fish to support herself and her child. Her life had been torn apart twice, but instead of retreating into the abyss, she turned the light leaking through the cracks into her own path.