An older leper who owned a sorghum winery that is remote dies. Jiu'er, the wife purchased from the leper, and her fan, identified only as"my Grandpa" by the narrator, simply take over the winery and set an abysmal quasi-matriarchal community led by Jiu'er. When the Japanese invaders cut the sorghum to make way for a street and subject the area to their rule the community rises up and resists as the sorghum grows afresh.