Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.

Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl

When impoverished young bride Youyou (Zhang) collapses from hunger at the door of handsome buccaneer Pan Hao (You Yong), he immediately decides to have her, much to the chagrin of his current squeeze, Widow Ma (Jiang Yanqiang).