Liang Peisi, a university student from Shanghai, has come to a poverty-stricken rural village. She joins a youth program that renders assistance to the poorest villagers, and for one year she volunteers as a teacher at a high school. Despite her sense of mission, the realities of life in an impoverished region are overwhelming. Her students live in the most shabby of dormitories, and try to study on an inadequate diet. Though Liang does her best to be supportive, almost all her pupils abandon the idea of going on to university. Although the country is growing economically, poverty remains in regions such as this and many people are left behind.