Bowa is a young boy of the Tujia ethnic minority living in a small village outside Chongqing. A severe speech impediment means he can’t string two words together until after the age of ten, which prevents him from going to school and causes his fellow villagers, family and acquaintances to write him off as silly or dumb.

But not being able to speak doesn’t stop him from dreaming and imagining. With the help of an enlightened supply teacher, who has volunteered to teach in this remote mountainous area, and help from a little white crane he befriends along the way, he eventually overcomes his speech impediment revealing a veritable child prodigy beneath the surface…