A young schoolteacher unknowingly enters a tangled web of politics in Yang Jin's unsentimental dissection of the Chinese countryside. When his father dies from AIDS following a botched blood transfer, Jinsheng must return to his home village to take care of his aging grandmother. Taking on the role of a schoolteacher in this barren village, Jinsheng is given a milk cow for his salary in place of money. On behalf of his students, the young man cunningly uses the cow to gain influence within this poor community dominated by stifling bureaucratic governance and backward feudal customs. Will Jingsheng's unexpected rise to power be crushed within this oppressive environment, or will he find his way back out?