After being driven out by her husband's family, Lin Yao unexpectedly awakens a miraculous spring in her palm. During a heavy snowstorm, she takes shelter in a dilapidated house and uses the spiritual spring to save the village's only plowing ox. She humiliates her cruel sister-in-law and turns her fortunes around by securing a position at the commune's pig farm. She establishes a mutual-aid group, leading the entire village in raising chickens and growing medicinal herbs to escape poverty. From a woman branded as a bringer of bad luck and cast out of her home, she rises to become a provincial model worker. She also adopts orphans and builds a remarkable life as an independent, strong woman.