Ye Sun grew up in an ethnic Bulang village in Yunnan Province, but she now lives in the Chinese world of her boarding school. While other students decide to stay home after sixth grade, Ye Sun sticks with it and moves to middle school in the market town. Her friendships broaden, but she also faces more difficult subjects, an abusive teacher, and taunts over her faltering Mandarin. Just as she thinks the situation is at its worst, a harrowing accident turns her family — and her life — upside-down.