THE RICE PADDY is set in a village in southern China. The film follows a family over four seasons in the rice paddy.
The story is told by a 12-year-old girl named A Qiu.
When her grandmother dies, her parents have to leave their jobs on a construction site in the city and come back to live in the village.

A Qiu lives at the crossroads of tradition and the modern world. She decides to become a writer when she grows up.
The story is filmed with villagers, non-professional actors, playing the characters. This touching psychological story is the first movie to be filmed entirely in the Dong language (a Tibeto-Burman language).