During a time of rigid moral code in China, Xiao Yun, a sixteen year old girl living in small riverside town, discovers she is pregnant. The local community is stunned, her family loses face and she is forced to put her child up for adoption. Ten years later, she is reduced to working as a singer in a local song and dance troupe, despite her training as an opera singer. Her only real companion is Xiao Yong, a fiercely affectionate boy who protects her from the critical eyes of the community until a marriage proposal discovers the limits of their friendship, and the depth of her unresolved past.