In the 1980s, Su Anxin, an adopted daughter from Qingxi Village, is forced by her adoptive parents to divide the family property before her wedding. All she receives is an abandoned, old mulberry field on the shady slope behind the village. Everyone expects her to starve, but with a silkworm-raising handbook left by her grandmother and an old fountain pen, she produces fine cocoons, establishes a mutual-aid group, and sets out to lead the villagers in building a road to transport silk out of the mountains. But just as her business begins to flourish, a silk merchant from the county town takes an interest in her old fountain pen and the scar on her left arm.