Deshan is an old farmer living at the outskirts of a remote village situated in an extremely poor mountainous area. He digs the harsh soil of his homeland, barely managing to scrape together enough food to feed himself and his wife. He shares a hard, but serene, destiny with his fellow villagers until the government intervenes in his life in the manner of a clumsy god. One day, two rare foreign sheep appear on Deshan's threshold like mysterious and beautiful mythological beings from another world. Deshan thus becomes the talk of the community, the lucky chosen one, the custodian of the village's heart of gold. But the capricious sheep require fancy food and specialized daily care and become a greater handful than Deshan could have ever expected. Ultimately, the sheep become surrogate children on whom all manner of attention is lavished by the doting parents—until an incident occurs that causes the municipal leaders to retaliate.