For the first time in many years businessman Luo Yusheng drives to Sanhetun, the village in northern China where he was born. The district mayor having called him to tell him that his father died suddenly, Yusheng is rushing back to be with his mother. He finds her grief-stricken, keeping a sad vigil outside the decrepit village schoolhouse. But she is adamant that her husband's funeral will follow age-old local customs, even if they are rarely observed nowadays. She will personally weave the funeral cloth on the village loom, and local men must carry the coffin from the hospital back to the village.
The mayor hopes that Yusheng will persuade his mother to be more 'reasonable' – such as to allow the coffin to be driven rather than carried. He fears that even if he could find men willing to carry the coffin many miles through the winter snows, there would not be enough of them. Most of the young men of Sanhetun, like Yusheng himself, have left the village to work in faraway cities.
As he watches his mother weave the funeral cloth, Yusheng reflects on what he's heard of his parents' courtship. Everyone in the village knew the story at that time. In a flashback, their remarkable story of love and loyalty is told.
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