Three little sisters, YING (10 years old), ZHEN (6 years old) and FEN (4 years old) live alone in a small village in the high mountains of the Yunnan region. The father works in the town a few hundred kilometers down the mountain and the mother has left long ago. The little girls don’t go to school, spending their days working in the fields or wandering in the village. Quite and patient, YING takes care of her two sisters and does most of the fieldwork. Sometime, they help their grandfather and aunt in exchange for a meal. One day the father returns from the city. Worrying that his girls would grow up without someone taking care of them, he decides to take with him to the city the younger ones and leave YING alone under the supervision of her grandfather. YING now has to adapt to an even more solitary life.