When the Japanese invade China, Kwei Er and his family flee their burning village and go to live with Uncle Ma Chuang Fu and his wife. But even in the remote town of Nan Kung, the fingers of war can touch them. Kwei Er begins helping his uncle and a missionary, Eric Liddell, as they transport wounded Chinese from the surrounding villages to the Siaochang hospital. The work is dangerous, and every time Kwei Er leads his mule out of town onto the empty road, he wonders if he will live to come home.