A novice city-based teacher's first assignment is to a fishing village's grade school. The young teacher's first week with her new students is enjoyable, but she gradually notices that many of the students are skipping school. Visiting her students' after class she realizes that many of them are charged with work and tasks like making money, toiling on the farm, doing housework or tending to their younger siblings. Many of them live in unhygienic homes due to poverty or overwork. She not only reports and explains the situation to the school's principal, but also attempts to improve the conditions by making textbooks, teaching cleanliness and making her classes relevant. With students still unhealthy she takes things one step further and takes the students to the ocean to procure oysters, to the mountain to dig up potatoes and generally help with their nutrition. One student, however, falls from the hill and is injured leading to an angry and complaining parent. The teacher is about to quit, but others are sure she means well and has helped more than anything or anyone.