[1] After the birth of her children, a rural mother becomes so devoted to them that she completely neglects her ill-tempered husband.

He sulkily returns home, beats up his naughty son, and accidentally drinks himself to death with the wrong type of alcohol.

After his death, the mother works as a seamstress and manages to send all her children to a private school.

Even when she returns home for brief visits (just to impress the neighbors, as she says), she treats the entire family with contempt.

With no income to pay the rent, the mother and the second daughter-in-law have to seek shelter with her eldest daughter.