In the 1980s, Lin Jianxi marries into the Zhou family and moves into their ancestral home. On her very first day, she encounters a strict family rule: every daughter-in-law must kowtow nine times to her father-in-law. Her mother-in-law, Xu Chunmei, has knelt for twenty years, losing her dignity and watching her family fall apart. Lin Jianxi refuses to kneel. Her defiance tears open a wound that has been buried for twenty years. A fabricated ancestral rule drove away the eldest son, trapped the second son, and tormented the daughter-in-law for half her life. Using photographs to expose the lies and empty bowls and chopsticks to stir people's hearts, Lin Jianxi gradually forces the stubborn patriarch, Zhou Hongzhang, to face the truth. When the kowtowing rule is finally abolished, the family sits down and finishes a reunion dinner together on their own two feet for the first time.