In a small town in China, village elder Wang (Lei Laosheng) ends an argument with the peasant Qinglai (Liu Peiqi) by kicking him. Incensed, Qinglai's indomitable and heavily pregnant wife, Qiu Ju (Gong Li), demands an apology from the village chief. When she doesn't get one, Qiu Ju embarks doggedly on a quixotic search for justice, taking her case to higher and higher levels of government and encountering maddening levels of bureaucracy in the process.