Impressive images of silent beauty depict the environment of a mountain village in the Chinese province of Ningxia in a unique way. In the enclosed Muslim community, old Ma and his son mourn the death of their beloved wife and mother. After forty days, the tradition dictates to carry out a ritual during which they should sacrifice their only piece of cattle. But Ma is plagued by doubts and the bull stops eating, as if in a premonition of its fate.