A tiny Chinese village is slated to be flooded, and the government wants to build a dam in its place. The government offers technologically advanced apartments in the city along with resettlement checks for those who relocate, and most village residents gladly take up the offer. The seed keeper, whose job is to take care of all the seeds necessary for the entire village’s yearly crops, is hesitant to leave, even though her son is a surveyor from the city who works to take measurements for the dam and persuades people to leave the village. A village schoolteacher is also reluctant to leave, and writes letters to the government about why they are making a huge mistake in building the dam. As the rains fall harder, the seed keeper goes to live with her son in the city for a while before deciding the village is indeed where she wants to be. The schoolteacher and the seed keeper catch fireflies together and release them into the river. Then the flood comes and the seed keeper never crosses paths with the schoolteacher again; she hopes he, too, made it out alive. Years later, she lives in the city near her son, who comes to visit often with his girlfriend and her son. The seed keeper begins to lose her memory.