The Zhou family in Huaishuwan had been pushovers for decades, until they married Shen Yanqiu, a tough daughter-in-law who knew how to calculate accounts. Faced with neighbors occupying the doorway to dry peanuts and clansmen extorting money and labor, she led her parents-in-law and husband to settle old scores item by item, also teaching the family to stand tall. From swallowing insults to daring to say "no", this small rural family guarded love and family affection amidst the fireworks of the era, and ordinary people finally lived out their own dignity.