Luo Yusheng, Sun Honglei, returns to his village from the city after hearing of his father's death, carrying the weight of a family ritual that binds generations to place. His mother, Zhao Di, Zhang Ziyi, insists on carrying the coffin back to the remote village on foot so that her husband's spirit will remember the way home. As the narrator, Yusheng narrates the tale of his parents' courtship, a story so famous in the village that it has grown into a local legend. It is here that the film's stark black-and-white frame begins to bloom into vivid color as the past unfolds before the eyes.
In the village's earlier days, his father, Luo Changyu, Zheng Hao, arrives as a teacher and sets a quiet, almost whispered romance in motion with Zhao Di. Zhao Di falls for him, and he returns her feelings in kind, their courtship unfolding through glances and shared moments rather than grand gestures. The relationship encounters its first real obstacle when Luo is summoned by the government to return to the city, tearing them apart. Zhao Di, left waiting outside, grows ill, and the villagers fear she may not recover. Hearing of her illness, the teacher manages to slip back into the village, and Zhao Di greets his return with tears of relief. Yet the lovers cannot be together openly for years, because Luo is kept away from the village as punishment for leaving his post without permission.
Returning to 1999, the color washes back into the frame as Yusheng comes to understand just how central this coffin ritual is to his mother’s memory and to the village’s sense of continuity. The mayor of the village, Guifa Chang, explains that finding enough healthy porters may prove difficult, given the shrinking number of young men. Still, the two generations work out a plan, balancing duty, reverence, and the practicalities of communal life. What begins as a logistical task quickly feels like an honor, a communal oath to carry forward the legacy of teachers who shaped the town across generations.
As the procession finally begins, more than a hundred villagers gather to bear the casket home, their participation underscoring a shared respect for the village's traditional teachers and the bonds that connect past and present. The mayor even returns Yusheng’s money, recognizing that they are participating in something deeper than a job or ritual—that they are honoring a lineage and a memory that sustains every generation.
On the morning before Yusheng must return to his city life, he fulfills his father’s dream by teaching a class in the old schoolhouse—the same room that once romanticized his parents’ story—using the textbook his father authored, a tangible link between the generations. In the quiet, enduring act of guiding the students, the film closes on a note of continuity, memory, and communal pride that roots the present in the village’s long, interwoven past.
