Introduction:

Amid the rapid urban sprawl of Guiyang in southwestern China, landlady Xiuzhi—known to her tenants as Mangmei— makes a living by running a low-cost guesthouse for migrant workers and acting as a broker for the local day-labor market. Unruly tenants, tight-fisted clients, the rising cost of education for her three daughters, and her husband in poor
health mean that life keeps throwing one difficult problem after another at her. Hustling day and night, she keeps both her business and her family afloat. Then, just as an unexpected pregnancy brings the promise of a baby boy, another turn arrives at the same time—one she never saw coming. And she keeps fighting forward, right through the cracks of life.