This very special film takes the viewer to the heart of rural China. Filmed in the remote Loess Plateau, it captures the quality of peasant life where people work hard on the land to survive and every extra mouth to feed puts a heavy strain on the family.

It introduces us to two village women, Bai, who has just delivered her third child and is in trouble with the family planning officials, and Ma Ning, who is about to be married by arrangements with a matchmaker. It shows how the state intercedes in family life, with rules and penalties for non-compliance.

Bai is ready to give her third child for adoption but, her husband cannot bring himself to do that, even though it is a girl. In any case, Bai knows that soon she will be forced to undergo sterilization. The camera follows her to the hospital where a bureaucratic female doctor ignores her distress.

Ma Ning's life as a wife and mother is just beginning. Communist regulation has not snuffed out traditions. A geomancer is consulted for a propitious wedding date. The bride, accompanied by a band, is escorted to her husband's village with all her possessions in a wheel barrow . The celebratory meal takes many cooks to prepare. The groom must provide the couple's furnishings, which even in this remote corner of China, includes a much coveted eighteen-inch television set.